Genesis Zero
by Eremittens
Summary: In a world where Earth is under the rule of a species of humanoid aliens, Osamu Mikumo finds himself drawn to the cause of a fiery rebel group and is soon trapped in the midst of a war to determine humanity's future. As Osamu begins to realize that the more he knows the less makes sense, his story becomes linked with those who, for the first time, dare defy their fate.
1. Prologue

"Hey, dad, what's that?"

Yuma Kuga barely managed to see over his father's desk, standing on his toes as tiny fingers grasped at the edge. He eyed the shiny object on its surface curiously, turning to the man working on said object for an explanation.

"A friend," the father, Yugo Kuga, replied without taking his eyes off the rounded shape. He did take a second to pat the top of Yuma's head, while the child looked up in confusion.

"A friend?" Yuma echoed, grumbling at his dad's indecipherable answer - by this point, he was used to them. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Eh?" Yugo turned his head, wearing a friendly expression. "He's your friend. Or, will be, when I get him up and running. This one's being stubborn."

"You're so weird," Yuma muttered, although despite his attempts to sound cooler than he was, he was fascinated with the robot-looking thing his dad was working with, whatever it might have been. Yuma was five years old at the time, and ever since his early years he had constantly begged his father to teach him how to build the machines and such he almost always saw Yugo tinkering with. At first Yugo had refused, believing the majority of his work not to be safe for a five year-old, (which it really wasn't) until Yuma burned his hand trying to teach himself and Yugo decided it would be better to show him the basics, rather than leave the curious child thinking he could figure it out through trial and error.

Yuma stared on, truly understanding only a small bit of what Yugo was doing, but at least in his mind he seemed to think otherwise. "What's it for?"

"You, mostly."

"Me?"

"Mm."

"Why?"

Yugo laughed. "For one thing, don't you get bored with just me around? And on top of that we could always use another hand around here, but it'll be nice to give you a companion."

Yuma furrowed his brows, almost pouting. "I don't need _another_ companion, dad, you're already here."

"Is that so?" Yugo ruffled his son's dark hair, moving from the unfinished project as he lifted Yuma to his lap. "Come on, it'll be nice to have another voice of reason. Not to mention, I won't always be around, s-"

"Nah, you'll always be around." Yuma murmured in protest, looking up at his father with round, cherry eyes as he tried to convince himself his brain wasn't sleepy. "Right?"

Yugo paused, not entirely sure what would be a correct response to the bright-faced boy clutching his sleeve - he was ignorant, but perhaps that was a good thing for now.

"Sure, kiddo."

Five years came and went, quicker than Yugo had hoped. Yuma grew quickly, becoming quite handy in Yugo's field, enough to the point where he was allowed to create his own miniature devices by the age of nine. He was ten now, and quite a handful, but that was among the reasons Replica was there.

It had also been five years since Yugo built Replica, an autonomous robotic guardian to look after Yuma. He was happy to see his son forming a relationship with said guardian, and at this point Yugo wasn't entirely sure how he would manage without the familiar presence of the 'glorified rice cooker', as he had once described him to Yuma while trying to explain the design inspiration.

Meanwhile, science was moving forward in leaps in bounds, with the discovery of extraterrestrial life forms that peaked Yugo's interest. He began to gear his research in that direction, being careful to keep Yuma in the dark for most of it in fear of discovering anything that was 'less optimistic' compared to what the media would release.

And unfortunately for the both of them, he did.

Another year, and following a series of events an official declaration of war against Earth had been made, by the same humanoids people had been so overjoyed to discover. There was no use in shielding an eleven year-old Yuma from that fact, but the least Yugo could do was promise him that he would be safe. Yugo didn't like to lie, so he avoided saying anything about his own future, not welcoming questions the man knew he couldn't answer.

He could hear Yuma from the other room, playing a board game of some sort with Replica. Yugo sighed, out of both happiness and rivaling sadness, and an awareness at the coming danger Japan would face. It was difficult to predict when it would peak, and Yugo could only wish he would be granted enough time, but regardless of the cost he was determined to save his son.

Four more years, Yuma had turned fifteen and the entire world was on the losing side of the war. At fifteen he could grasp the situation more realistically, and on several occasions had mentioned applying for the military to follow in his father's footsteps. Before the war, Yugo had been an unofficial advisor for a friend already ranked in it, and due to his skills was then scouted, giving him access to the pools of information unavailable to citizens. Yuma knew of some of this information, though that fraction was limited for his own protection.

It was because of this privilege that Yugo had already prepared for the worst, knowing that his country in its current state, weakened by superior numbers and power, would cease to exist sometime in the months to come. This prediction, made not only by Yugo but the majority of Japanese military leaders, was kept from the public to retain what little order there was left, and 'peaceful' evacuations had already progressed.

The government urged citizens to leave the country, not necessarily to save them, but to buy them more time to live. The chance of saving people was close to nothing, yet it was instilled in those still living in Japan they would be safer overseas. After all, hope was the greatest weapon, if not to the enemy then to human despair.

Yugo knew he was going to die; people serving in the military would leave last, if at all, and by then it would be too late. He also knew Yuma would absolutely refuse to evacuate if Yugo would end up being left behind, and if that was the case so be it. With Replica he may have been able to get the stubborn boy to depart, even against his will, but from Yugo's viewpoint it was obvious that regardless of where one fled, a protected place to go was nonexistent.

So Yuma would stay in Japan, but not to die with Yugo. He was going to live, Yugo made sure of that, and if all went as he so, so desperately hoped, eventually his son would be able to live a normal life, and if not a normal one a happier one.

Yugo had used up a great chunk of whatever spare time he could get his hands on in the past few years preparing for this, creating a project kept secret from Yuma through a series of excuses and Replica's assistance. There was no guarantee it would be a success, but Yugo was willing to bet on the other outcomes if there was a possibility of saving Yuma's life. If he had more time Yugo would have made alterations to the project to accommodate more than person, but he did not, and in fact barely managed to link it with Replica.

"Goodnight, dad," Yuma called from outside his bedroom, interrupting Yugo's thoughts and sounding tired and looking forward to the warm escape of unconsciousness. Yugo heard the door closing, and then a sloppy series of footsteps before Yuma crawled into bed.

His eyes drifted over the messy pile of plans and sketches, each one outlining each and every detail of what was to become of Yuma's life, and then his gaze rose to the ceiling, as he leaned back in his chair before standing and quietly walking down the narrow hallway. Yugo stopped in front of Yuma's door, gently placing a hand on the wood. Later that night, when Yuma would not wake upon an intrusion he would probably say goodnight once more, and it pained him to know that Yuma was unaware a simple 'goodnight' would be the last word exchanged between him and his father.

Despite all of this, somehow, Yugo managed to smile.

"Goodnight, Yuma. You'll wake up to a better world."

And so, five years passed again. Five years passed again ten times.


	2. To Fight, To Live, and To Die

The outside world was a dangerous place.

There was no shield, no weapon of any sort that had the capability to challenge Fate, nothing standing between humankind and ruthless slaughter. Maintaining the outside was a task long left abandoned, not because those who would have been tasked lacked manpower, but because the very existence of a cruel world that spared none was able to keep humans locked within their cities better than any walls or gates could. The human race was confined in cities for their own protection, and owed a great debt to those who had spared their lives.

That was what Osamu Mikumo had grown up believing.

He wasn't the only one that had been told this; the horrors of the outside had been drilled into everyone he knew, young and old, until an entire population was convinced their only hope of survival was to live miserably within cities surrounded by unscalable walls, guarded day and night by a race that had wiped out some seventy-five percent of the global population prior.

'Neighbors' were what they were eventually called, the dimension they originated from then referred to as the 'Neighborhood'. When these humanoids first made contact with Earth, so Osamu had been told, most people had been looking forward to a peaceful relationship with these people, and due to this thought, were terribly shaken by the declaration of war that followed around a year later. Humanity was in no way prepared for war against a species with superior numbers, fighting power, and technology, and from the beginning any effort made was in vain.

Apparently, the Neighbors' goal all along was a war that would end in their victory, and in the aftermath of it the fraction of humans left alive stayed as so, entirely because the Neighbors wanted it that way. Humans were only kept in walled cities, overseen heavily by Neighbor forces to prevent escapees, (though, amazingly, there had been some tales of brave ones able to get to the outside) and lived under strict laws in which breaking them commonly lead to death, or whatever else happened to people who were taken away. Rumor had it some were brainwashed or bribed into becoming soldiers, but with no credible source Osamu chose not to think about such disturbing things.

'The human race is an experiment', said various deceased who managed to get their voice across, and if Osamu were to think using his own opinion, they weren't entirely wrong, if not completely right - some humans just refused to accept their status being no higher than test subjects. Check-ins were regular, and it would be unusual _not_ to see a Neighbor soldier observing crowded areas. By this point it was considered entirely normal, and Osamu as well as anyone born after the war knew of nothing else, nothing to compare their situation to. He was lucky to be alive, and according to his mother that was more than enough to be thankful for.

It wasn't that Osamu was willing to throw away his own life, but it was difficult to find a purpose in a routine, robotic world in which free will was a myth, and it wasn't his personality but his raw human instinct that absolutely despised it. As much as Osamu wanted the freedom that the people from fifty years ago had, he knew all too well that someone within the walls had no chance of fighting for it.

So the battle was left to the rebellion.

Osamu himself had little to no understanding of how this group of people actually worked, nor how large their organization was, their total firepower, and so on. But by the few stories that somehow slipped through the walls, Osamu saw a force that wasable to be on par with Neighbors, one that just may be able to give humans a fighting chance.

Despite how he saw the rebel group as heroes to mankind, he could never see himself alongside any of them - freedom was his wish as much as anyone else's, yet one he could not fight for.

And, although Osamu didn't know it then, he was wrong about that, but at this moment in time it was beyond the point.

He was walking towards the school that day, staring his first semester in high school after break. It was surprising that school had progressed mostly as it had before the war, and the teachers were even human. Granted, Osamu was almost certain that what they were being taught differed greatly in comparison to what was taught fifty years ago, but as he didn't have any knowledge on the latter option, he didn't mind. On the surface, life progressed as normal, and for the time being Osamu decided it would be alright to succumb to that illusion.

The weather was warmer than usual, which had a nice contrast to the frosty mornings that had been unchanging in the past few months. Making his way down a divided sidewalk, the several armed soldiers along the way fazed no one, and Osamu went about his own business without worry.

He didn't notice the commotion until it was too late to avoid it, and Osamu was just about knocked off of his feet as a harsh bump to his arm disrupted his balance. Someone had collided with him, luckily not enough to cause harm but enough to make his arm hurt, and whoever it was seemed to be quite shorter, their head barely above Osamu's shoulder.

Osamu looked down to apologize, but the person was moving quickly and hadn't taken any mind to him. By the time he opened his mouth they were already in front of him, the only description of their appearance available being a hooded figure that traveled with an awkward run.

 _Are they hurt?_ Was Osamu's first assumption, noticing immediately how their stride seemed odd and almost painful compared to what was more typical, and he then went on to wonder why they were running in the first place. Under normal circumstances, he would have continued on his way to school and probably have forgotten about the person in a couple of hours, but as he was yet to discover, these were, in no way, normal circumstances.

Osamu froze at the sharp sound of a gunshot, and in the stretched time that followed his world went silent. He barely felt the bullet fly by the right side of his head, probably taking one or more insignificant strands of hair with it. His senses were uncertain as to how he should react, fear having not set in and his mind completely stunned.

 _Are my ears ringing? I think so. It feels weird_.

"H-Hey, stop!" An enraged yell brought him back to the current situation, and suddenly everything around him seemed considerably louder. Countless sounds blurred together, and the atmosphere had turned chaotic by the time Osamu's thoughts were back in line. Other people were shouting, too, out of fear as crowds shuffled in all directions.

The footsteps came less than a second after, and from natural instinct alone Osamu stumbled from the center of the walkway, putting a shaky hand to the side of his head, numb at the possibility of touching blood. To his relief there was no wound, and as he finally realized what had just happened his head jerked up in the direction of the person who had nudged him just moments before.

"Was he running fromthem...?" Osamu thought out loud, although he spoke too quietly for anyone to hear. There were several others huddled on the edge of the narrow road, having only not left in a hurry because of a combination of sheer shock and this kind of scene not being entirely abnormal - people fleeing from Neighbor officials was not always a public occurrence but it did indeed happen, and even with the attempts to cover skirmishes up Osamu had already heard of multiple that year.

There were two pursuers, each appearing to be in the lower ranks but both fully armed. Osamu's hand returned just above his right ear, flinching at the thought of what could have easily happened had the guard's aim been even slightly off.

Another shot, then another a split second after that, and Osamu looked forward just in time to see the hooded person round a corner and disappear, a splash of blood staining the walkway before they did. For whatever reason they were a target, and while there was a concern nagging him Osamu also wanted to get on with his day, and try to pretend he hadn't almost been shot.

"Call the backup unit," one of the soldiers, their voice sounding to be female, spoke to the other, only a little over a few feet away from Osamu and some other people. "Report we have the situation under control, he won't get far if we're quick about it, and his leg's been wounded. I got his arm, as well."

She went on to continue the chase, or at the very least assure he wouldn't escape, while the other Neighbor remained behind. He tapped something into a device that Osamu assumed was some sort of communication method, before turning to the small crowd with a stern aura. "If anyone caught his face, you'll be brought in for questioning, with a reward for it."

People murmured among themselves, knowing that if they claimed to have seen the apparent fugitive's appearance when they didn't, there would be inevitable consequences, a possible execution being one of them. The Neighbors knew this much, and when nobody stepped forward the soldier went to his device again, following his comrade's command requesting backup.

"Mm, questioning?" Someone behind Osamu spoke up suddenly, sounding strangely casual, especially concerning the context of the situation. He nudged the teenager over to the side ever so slightly, a hand lingering on his shoulder for a quick moment. "Is that what they're saying now? People get their memory erased, right, it's not a secret anymore."

 _Is he serious?_

Osamu's gaze frantically went to the Neighbor upon hearing the stranger's comment, the soldier still close, and it was debatable whether or not he was in earshot. Osamu turned his head, dumbfounded, at the man next to him, hardly believing anyone would say something so careless.

For one thing, the person stood out as it was, with a brightly-colored blue jacket and sunglasses of a similar hue on his forehead. He showed no signs of realizing the danger of what he had just said, and this visible mood alone separated him from the rest of the group. Upon making eye contact with Osamu, he smiled warmly, while Osamu tried not to look at him like he was an idiot.

"Hey, quiet!" Osamu whispered sharply, as most people who had made up the group of onlookers returned to their daily route. "You can't say stuff like that, are you _trying_ to get arrested?"

"Oh?" The person was just about pouting, and Osamu was convinced he truly didn't realize his mistake. "I wouldn't like to be arrested, wouldn't work out too well. Don't worry, though, it'll be fine, I'm just passing through anyways. Here one day gone the next, and even if I did royally screw up somehow the officials here won't get me for it."

 _What?_

Osamu yelped internally when he noticed the soldier eyeing them suspiciously, and instinctively opened his mouth to announce that he would be on his way, just as the stranger added on to their own thought.

"On that note, I'll be off," he announced happily, still taking no mind to the intimidating guard that was scaring Osamu more than he'd like to admit. "Good talk, er, Four-Eyes, thank you for the concern!" He then patted the younger boy's shoulder again, afterwards picking up his pace to a fast jog before Osamu had the chance to say anything. The teenager could only watch him go, and as he blended into the crowd Osamu warily glanced at the Neighbor again, who had not since moved.

 _They didn't hear it. They didn't hear it_.

He continued on his way to school, on the normal sidewalk he always took. It was no different that day, no different than any other day he had taken that sidewalk yet he couldn't shake a feeling of unease that made itself impossible to ignore.

 _Even if they did, I didn't say anything supporting that person_.

His legs acting before he consciously gave an order, Osamu found himself jogging as well.

 _It's fine, it's fine, it's fine, I don't know who he is, I can't be brought in, I didn't say anything_.

A part of Osamu knew he was just being paranoid, but another part of Osamu hated the fact that the way he was forced to live was the reason for said paranoia. He knew he shouldn't be worrying over something as little as some sentences spoken by a complete stranger, yet he was, for unfair reasons hammered into his head that should have never been there in the first place.

Checking the time on his watch, (which also served as an identification bracelet for those living in the city) Osamu now had another stress case upon realizing he was going to be late for his first class at this rate. Groaning and forcing himself to rip the majority of his thinking space from what had just happened, Osamu sought out one of a couple shortcuts he had discovered over the years, and, betting on his last chance of making it to the school on time, veered off the main path.

His way of getting there, frowned upon by his mother, was through a few back alleyways that nobody really used, despite them not being dangerous whatsoever in contrast with the common stigma. Osamu had only taken a wrong turn here once in his fifteen years, and even then he was exploring mindlessly, so nothing negative came out of the mistake besides the near-heart attack twelve-year-old Osamu felt like he had at that time.

On edge from the incident that had occurred something around seven minutes ago, Osamu was feeling a tad jumpier than he usually would, now with the addition of not being able to tell whether he would be late to school or not. He convinced himself he had shaken it off, when he hadn't, but as long as he wouldn't scream at the tiniest noise all was well.

He convinced himself this, until he saw the body.

Osamu stopped like his legs wouldn't move anymore, believing in an instant that the figure in front of him was dead. Sitting against a wall, clearly undersized, and with blood pooling around them Osamu nearly did scream, until he noticed the sharp, jagged breaths that shook the person every time one was taken. He didn't know what to do, he wanted to call the guards but especially after talking to the stranger from before, there was no telling what kind of outcome that would lead to. His second thought was calling his mother for help, but he knew already that she would only call the guards minutes later and render his efforts to stay under their noses useless.

"O-Oh my god, are you okay?" Osamu tripped on his words, taking the responsibility on his own shoulders. "Are you hurt?" That was a dumb question, the person was obviously injured somewhere, just looking at the amount of blood, but Osamu felt the need to ask anyway.

When they showed no response, only the continuous breathing that was definitely abnormal, Osamu took a few steps closer and only then did the person's clothing strike him as familiar. _Very_ familiar, that is, if Osamu's shaky guess was correct.

Their hood was still cast above their head but not as much as before, revealing a tuft of snowy hair in the middle of their forehead. The sweatshirt was the same, a dull, gray-ish lavender color that seemed too big for the wearer. At this distance Osamu could pinpoint at least two wounds, one on the left arm and another on the right leg. He recalled a statement by the female Neighbor, and then it felt as if his heart had forgotten to beat.

 _"Report we have the situation under control, he won't get far if we're quick about it, and his leg's been wounded. I got his arm, as well."_

Now, Osamu was certain most people would have turned tail and walked out of there like nobody's business, and he wasn't the cliche ' _Osamu Mikumo was not like most people_ ,' but the ' _why oh why could Osamu Mikumo_ not _be like most people?'_

 _I'll try to help their injuries, but I won't help them escape, I won't get caught and in a few minutes I'll be out of here_ , Osamu promised himself, and while he refused to abandon a person who would be on death's door if he did, aiding in the escape of a fugitive was a high criminal offence and Osamu was terrified of imagining the punishment for it.

 _I'm going to stop the bleeding, I'm not showing them a way out of here_.

Osamu keeled down until he was at eye level with the much shorter person, apparently male and a few years younger than him. When their eyes met, deep red and a brighter green, Osamu was surprised to see confusion, among other things, in the fugitive's expression.

"...What are you doing?" The white-haired boy spoke first, observing Osamu with a puzzled look. His voice didn't make it sound like he was in any pain, contradicting Osamu's assumption as to what he would sound like.

"These'll get infected if they're not treated properly, but at the very least you should stop the bleeding," Osamu explained himself, hoping he sounded less caring than he was, which was somewhat cruel but Osamu's own life would be on the line if he stayed too long.

"Not here to kill me, then? Interesting, interesting." The boy was talking to himself, blankly staring at the wall in front of him. "So I presume you're either lying or don't know of my situation, then."

"I have... a brief understanding." Osamu admitted, the boy then looking at him stranger. "You bumped into me earlier, running from Neighbors."

He seemed even more lost now, tipping his head ever so slightly. "Sorry, I don't remember you - sure, I was running from Neighbors, though. But if you know even that much, why would you help me escape?"

"I'm not helping you escape," Osamu quickly clarified. "I just can't leave a person to bleed out like this, it wouldn't be right."

"Pretty sure that's still helping me escape," the boy muttered under his breath, probably not intending Osamu to hear. "Leave," he ordered, "don't waste your time helping others when it'll only put you in danger, tha-"

"Why were you running?" Osamu cut him off, rummaging through his bag for the water bottle he knew he had somewhere.

"Eh?"

"What did you do?" He rephrased in a tone harsher than he had wished.

The boy sighed, took his ruby gaze from Osamu and stared mindlessly into nothingness. "Really, who knows...?"

 _That's not a legitimate answer_. Osamu bit his tongue, repressing the urge to push further.

"Not to mention," he continued, "for all you know I could've killed a man, and despite that you sat down and tried to somehow help me, a _complete_ stranger, and I suppose you know you'll probably die if you're caught."

"Leaving someone else to die wouldn't sit right with me." Osamu had paused his search for something to clean the wounds with. "And true, I've no idea if you killed someone, but," he searched for the right words, "when I see people running for their life like that, my first guess is that they were someone who tried to fight back."

"Against the Neighbors, you mean?"

Osamu didn't say anything.

The boy laughed once. "Nothing that brave, unfortunately. You're definitely a weird one, though, I-"

"Both of you, don't move."

Osamu's entire body felt cold.

He knew what was happening, he knew what was about to happen, and looked over his shoulder excruciatingly slowly in disbelief.

"Don't move." The voice said again, this time more authoritative, and Osamu whipped his head back around to face the injured boy, who was unrealistically calm. Osamu had only gotten a brief visual but he could already recognize the Neighbors' military uniform, as well as their target's piercing glare, unflinching beside him.

"Sir," the guard spoke into an earpiece, "I've found the fugitive, and it seems he has an accomplice." He said something else, and something after that, but Osamu's head was blurry as he struggled to grasp the position he was in.

 _How did they get to us so fast? Were they watching_ me _?_ He feared the thought, that this was his fault, that the person whose name Osamu still did not know would have been better off on his own.

"They can kill me from this distance," the boy talked to himself again, mildly irritated. Osamu noticed how the amount of blood staining his clothes had increased considerably, especially around his arm, and felt another wave of guilt as he realized he never even helped that problem like he had wanted to.

"Stand up," the guard commanded, and Osamu felt himself shaking. If he did stand there was no telling if he would be able to stay on his feet, and when he looked at the fugitive he was amazed at the levelheadedness that masked any other emotion.

"Well well, you guys are pretty fast, barely made it!"

Osamu was staggering up when another voice entered the scene, and for the second time that day something about the speaker was all too familiar - he wasn't sure if it was appropriate to be filled with dread or relief.

The Neighbor took his eyes off of Osamu and the other boy, and in that instant the fugitive sprang to his feet, visibly wincing at the pain in his leg, and made a break for it as Osamu's attention shifted back to him.

"Hey!" The newcomer shouted, while the Neighbor revealed a readied firearm and took aim. "Yuma! I'm on your side, stop running!" Amusingly, he sounded like he was _whining_.

The boy, whom had been called Yuma, did come to a complete halt when the man gave the word but for his own reasons, and not giving any mind to the Neighbor that would kill him at the drop of a hat, he gaped at the person who had addressed him just as Osamu did the same.

When Osamu saw him, he noticed it was the same man as before, the one Osamu had to hush an ignorant comment for, who was likely to be the reason a guard had tracked Osamu and 'Yuma' in the first place, still looking unnaturally cheerful in a situation not welcoming it. His glasses were on his face now, rather than resting on his forehead as they were before, and he didn't show any signs of recognizing Osamu.

Yuma's voice was so different now than it was seconds ago, trembling unevenly and thick with a fear Osamu could have never been expecting. "How... how do you know my name?"

"Who the hell are you?" The Neighbor, now pitifully confused by the appearance of this quirky individual, shifted his eyes between him and the original target, as if deciding which one to shoot first.

"Sorry to startle you like this, kid," the stranger waved towards Yuma, and when Osamu looked at him again the poor child was horrified for reasons currently unknown. "I'd like to help you, my name's Jin and I'm with th-"

The Neighbor moved faster than Osamu could follow, and before the shot was fired he already knew Jin was going to die.

Jin, thinking quite the opposite, showed no fear of death, and jumped to the left like he'd practiced the scene beforehand.

A gunshot, then a hardly audible gasp and graceful tap on the concrete as Jin, if that was even his real name, dodged and stepped forward. He had a speed that must have been the result of experience and natural talent working together, and his movements were fluid and calm, even mesmerizing to watch.

"Man, how lame."

He was inconvenienced, and with that phrase began to seem intimidating.

In two steps Jin was a hand's length, if even that, from the Neighbor, who was a finger away from shooting again and putting his attacker out of commission. Jin made good use of that miniscule window of time, swung a hand behind the Neighbor's neck and landed one clean chop that knocked them unconscious. The gun did fire again, upwards, in a final act of defiance as the unsuspecting guard collapsed, Jin inching away to avoid the arm brushing his shoes.

Osamu stared, in shock at the limp body in front of him, and the man who had been responsible. Yuma stayed put, watching as well but he was more interested in Jin himself than what he had just seen.

This couldn't be the same, childish and happy-faced person that had spoken to Osamu before; _this_ person clearly had years of fighting up his sleeve and was more dangerous than what his outward appearance gave away. Jin was about to speak to Yuma first, until he finally noticed the face of the other boy, and his own lit up as if he _hadn't_ just knocked a soldier out.

"The Four-Eyes from earlier!" He sang, moving his glasses back to their original position on his hairline. "Didn't expect you to be caught up in this, how coincidental is that?"

Osamu had no idea what to say, as quickly as everything had begun it ended as well, at least for the time being. His speech was choppy, slurred in places and confused more than anything. "Who..." he managed to choke out, "... _are_ you?

"How do you know my name?" Yuma repeated himself, not wanting room left for Osamu's own questions, probably sounding trivial to him. The way his own words came out showed the possibility of wanting to hide the more fearful emotions with an assertive anger, but it wasn't honest.

"Right, we'll get to that, I'm here to help you and I can assure running away now is only going to make things worse." He was sympathetic, and even Osamu recognized the unspoken conversation going on between him and Yuma. Jin then addressed Osamu, winked, and saluted sloppily as he finally gave a formal introduction.

"Yuichi Jin, rebellion squadron leader, at your service!"


	3. Greetings From the Present to the Past

"Yuichi Jin, rebellion squadron leader, at your service!"

It was an introduction Osamu thought he would never hear once, in his entire life, nor the very words 'rebellion' spoken so proudly, rather than in a hushed fear or in announcements made by the government, filled with only hated and belittling language. Osamu wasn't watching Yuma but he knew there was no need to, the younger boy was likely just as shocked as he was.

"Y-Y-You're, y-you, you're really- th-then, so tha-that's why the, that's why the, th-the, why y-you-" Osamu couldn't piece together a proper sentence, so he resorted to throwing the first words that came to mind into a pile that was supposed to somehow convey meaning. It would do, he decided.

Jin laughed and nodded, making at least some sense of Osamu's messy phrasing, or acting like he did. Osamu's wallowing in desperate confusion wasn't his focus, though, and Jin looked to Yuma, still awaiting an answer to his own questions, now more agitated than before.

"As for how I know your name, Yuma," he said carefully, "seems I do have the right person, based on your reaction, so I'll cut to the chase for both of our sakes." Jin reached into the pocket sewed into the side of his pants and blindly felt around for something, then retrieved a folded paper that he fiddled with for a moment before holding it up so Yuma could see.

From Osamu's perspective, the paper seemed to be a statistics document, with the addition of a messy human sketch and notes on the left side. He had no idea how it was relevant to the situation, and when he turned around and saw Yuma, he didn't look like he knew either.

"What's...?" Yuma let his voice trail off as Jin walked towards him, to a point where most of the text would be legible.

"Name, age, weight, blood type, etcetera," Jin announced, listing off a few labels on the paper. "Yuma Kuga, sound familiar?" His voice was soft, not matching his face and general appearance, but it was the thought that mattered. "You match the descriptions, and as for more proof there's photos that weren't safe to bring for risk of letting the Neighbor forces know your face - that's, uh, out the window now but we tried - and I'd explain in detail if there was more time, but in a nutshell I think both of us can be of help to each other. The military's after you now, too, and while that's definitely going to be investigated, right now your best bet is to come with me."

"W-Wait, I don't- I don't even," Yuma cleared his throat while shaking his head, "I-I-I don't even know any of that... myself..." He paused, the confusion and horror in his eyes deepening and then melting as he read further down the page. "So you- you know who I am, then?"

 _He sounds... hopeful?_

"I do." Within arm's length of Yuma now, Jin passed the paper to him and the child looked it over more carefully, shaking his head again.

"This, this isn't- shouldn't be, I don't..." The old page crinkled under pressure from Yuma's thumbs. "How the hell do you...?"

"I know this is sudden," Jin apologized, "but I'll explain everything if you'll comply and come with me."

Yuma stared at him, eyes narrowed and mouth slightly ajar. "N-No, no way, I'm not just gonna-" He stopped, rethinking his words. "I've no idea wh-who you are, a-and you shouldn't have this, I don't know about any of this rebellion crap an-"

"Duck."

"What?"

The air was sliced, by a whistling shot ruthlessly scattering any sense of relief that may have tried to show itself. Jin, just barely avoiding it himself, slid to the right, closer to where Osamu still watched, taking Yuma with him in an impulsive action that was grabbing the boy's arm.

A bullet grazed by white hair, Yuma's eyes widening when he felt it, and Osamu got chills upon seeing how close it came, similar to what he had experienced not long before. Osamu didn't want to have to hear gunshots again that day, they were quite the frightening sound, especially when he finally came to realize he had put himself in the line of targets.

Jin made some sort of a groaning noise, and Yuma squinted at him. He looked towards the shooter, once again sporting a Neighbor's guard uniform. Osamu found himself biting his bottom lip out of nervous habit, and was absentmindedly adjusting his glasses every few seconds. Yuma was completely crushing the paper in a curled fist, his attention fixed on Jin and the attacker in front of him.

 _If there's one, there's more somewhere_ , Osamu thought to himself worriedly, debating whether or not he should alert Jin. There couldn't of been a need, he hoped, and with Jin and Yuma both present at least _one_ of them would be cautious.

"Heh, I know this is a bit late to ask," Jin laughed awkwardly, without looking away from the Neighbor, "but can either of you fight?"

"I-I, what?" Yuma didn't respond at once so Osamu did, not expecting the question whatsoever, nor believing his answer would be the one Jin wanted. "You're going to _fight_ them?"

 _If he really is who he says he is, then perhaps_...

"Mmhmm." Jin didn't wait for Yuma's answer, and instead spoke towards the Neighbor, arrogantly asking, "Only one? Where are your friends, then? No point in hiding 'em all, you'll lose either way."

The soldier had no reaction, not as easily agitated as the one before him. To Osamu's and presumably Jin's surprise, he abandoned the firearm most commonly used among low-ranked Neighbor guards, and in its place drew a thin, silver blade. Pointing the unsheathed weapon in Jin's direction, he lifted a hand ever so slightly, and Osamu, for real this time, swore he was going to have a heart attack.

Jin was perfectly calm, and looked over his shoulder at Osamu and Yuma, then smiling and flashing a peace sign. "Try not to die, okay?"

 _Try not... to die_...

Osamu hadn't noticed him do it, but from his belt Jin retrieved a strange-looking black object that somewhat resembled the base of a sword. There was a modern edge to it, and the green marking along the center had an eerie appearance to it in the half-light. Osamu instinctively moved closer to Yuma, stepping forward and hoping he wouldn't notice, (he did, but chose not to say anything for the sake of atmosphere) and tried pointlessly to steady his breathing.

Yuma made movements of his own, going a few steps until he was behind Osamu, leaving him between himself and Jin with a dazed expression. Osamu's eyes, darting back and forth, just managed to catch the Neighbor's fingers curling into a fist.

Jin manually drew no weapon, the hilt in his grasp spawned one of its own, sprouting a sleek blade emitting an unnatural glow. In that instance, Osamu thought, is when he became fully convinced Jin's claim about his identity was correct - he wasn't sure why, he wasn't sure what exactly made him believe Jin with no proper evidence, but some voice in his head decided that this person was indeed the real deal.

When the first Neighbor advanced, Yuma had already shifted into a defensive stance, his back to Osamu and Jin as if he was already expecting opponents coming from the opposite side. Jin, on the other hand, though wielding a sword his body language showed his muscles were lax and as a whole he was generally overconfident. Though Osamu wanted to be confident in him, too.

Jin dodged to the side first on light feet, blinking once with smile unfaltering. A blade struck through nothingness, the fighter themselves making eye contact with a frozen Osamu for a short moment before returning to Jin.

Another strike, and a block from Jin this time. One more followed after that, and another, each inconsistently growing in a speed that left Jin unfazed.

 _He's fighting defensively_ , Osamu observed, _is he waiting out the Neighbor's allies? Why?_

"A second one, with a sword," Yuma called out, visibly bracing himself. Osamu turned around just in the nick of time, and was shoved against the closest wall by Yuma, the other boy going with him as he avoided further injury.

Face twisted in pain and wounds bleeding again, Yuma unexpectedly pulled a knife. With it, he elaborately faked an attack, and upon the new Neighbor's counter slid behind them.

Osamu gawked at him; Yuma certainly didn't move like an amateur, but Osamu's attention was torn at yet another sharp sound of two clashing metals.

Jin was still intentionally on the defensive, but avoiding getting cornered. Dodging or parrying nearly every swing had some artistic simplicity to it, Jin's body weight shifting as he continued to avoid a hit. Pitted against each other, Jin and his opponent were both respectively skilled, but even from Osamu's viewpoint, in all his inexperience, the winner had been made clear since the beginning.

The Neighbor was annoyed at Jin's constant pattern, and their previously exact and organized moves had become messier with an emotional intent backing them. He aimed for Jin's neck, seemingly exposed, but the attempted blow would be the last.

Jin was quick and neat, the enemy sword missing him by a hair, and it took but a step and swing to finish the fight. Osamu could hear the scuffling of feet as the Neighbor moved to dodge, but anticipating the direction they would move, Jin slashed the soldier's chest in a swift action, unflinching as blood splashed the ground beneath them.

Osamu's heartbeat sped up again, seeing the corpse and Jin's suddenly monotone facial features. The sense of a darker mood only lasted a couple of seconds, and by the time Yuma was in need of assistance Jin was somehow bright again.

"I was really hoping to finish this at once," he muttered to himself, likely referring to how he had drawn out his individual fight. "Suppose you can't help these things."

By the time the second Neighbor realized Jin had killed his companion, time had run out, luckily, for Yuma's sake. Jin stuck through the back this time, his face revealing nothing, and when the soldier fell Yuma had already gained two additional cuts, one appearing far more severe than the other.

"There's not... more?" Osamu was the first to break the silence, which felt tediously long even when there was no way it could have lasted more than a few breaths.

Yuma, who had previously been on one knee, staggered to his feet and placed a hand over the freshest injury, crossing the right side of his torso and bleeding heavily. "Jin," he said, "who are you?"

His reply sounded overly-friendly. "I _told_ you, I'm-!"

Mid-sentence, Jin's face dropped.

Osamu noticed it, too, but out of fear his voice refused to comply. So Jin shouted.

"Yuma!"

The gunshot was too loud, Osamu thought, or at least sounded louder than the others. Everything seemed to slow down as the harsh sound bounced between walls, including Yuma's transition from tired, perhaps desperate curiosity into an uncharacteristic terror. Jin had already made a dash towards the bullet's source, yet by the time it came in contact with flesh, he hadn't even made it to where Yuma stood.

His hood had fallen from his head sometime during the fight, giving Osamu the first view of his entire face. Red eyes so wide they resembled moons, Yuma stared straight ahead as he felt the life slip out of him with one shot to the back. His bottom lip was trembling, and any color had drained from his already pale face before, incapable of saying anything, he collapsed.

Osamu wanted to scream, but when he opened his mouth it was a only a choppy group of words that escaped.

"H-H-He, i-is he, he's- he's d-de...he's de-dead," Osamu's phrasing was all over the place once again, a fine representation of the state of his mind at the time. He wanted to run, he wanted to at the very least look away from the blood spreading from Yuma's back, unevenly dying his clothes a dark crimson. Osamu was glued to the spot, and he could feel the urge to be sick nagging him without hesitation.

Jin, carelessly ignoring the Neighbor in front of him, stared down at Yuma's limp body, and though Osamu couldn't put a name to it there was something else in his expression, something relatively dark, alongside the expected shock. He looked past it, and the best description he could muster was that it felt somewhat unsettling.

Osamu hadn't heard a fourth Neighbor come up behind him, and before he knew to defend himself was violently kicked in the legs, stumbling to the ground as he was met with another kick, to his stomach this time. He coughed, the unsuspected pain only making his growing nausea worse. Looking up weakly, Osamu had been left aside, he could tell that much with knowledge of his own insignificance, and helplessly looked at the two soldiers closing in on Jin and Yuma's corpse.

 _Can I run?_ Was one of Osamu's first ideas in the situation, and immediately after it came to mind he felt a jab of guilt for even considering abandoning Jin and the lifeless Yuma. He didn't want to be there, for once he wanted to be in his boring first hour class, and, put simply, he was terrified. Yuma, whom Osamu had helped out of the idea that he _might_ have been someone brave enough to defy Neighbor forces, had died, shot down without any warning, just like that. Seeing the tiny figure Osamu's thoughts were plagued with a similar image, but with himself in the ruby-eyed boy's place.

If he did run, he would die eventually when he was caught, if not then and there if he wasn't fast enough. There was no escaping anymore, and deep down he knew that, especially seeing Jin on his own two against one.

"Hey," said the Neighbor that had kicked Osamu, "you killed him, good luck explaining _that_."

"Whether he's brought back alive or not doesn't matter." The other one refused to take his eyes off Jin, who still looked down at Yuma. "And that one over there," he nodded in Osamu's direction, "we've identified him already, Osamu Mikumo. As for you," he questioned Jin, "what's your name, and which district are you from? If you refuse to answer or answer wrongly, we'll kill you and Mikumo."

Jin just sighed.

"Yuma, can you get up now?"

 _...What?!_

The Neighbor whom had shot Yuma tensed. "Name and district?" He repeated, glaring fire at Jin, who still hadn't looked away from Yuma.

"Dammit..." a voice hissed quietly, "...not again." A voice Osamu had already heard, and one he hadn't expected to hear again.

His fingers twitched first, and then the entire left hand, making quiet patting noises. Then his other hand, and elbows bending ever so slowly, lifting his face from the ground.

 _No way, no way, no way_.

 _I saw him_.

 _I saw_ _him die_.

Both Neighbors made quiet gasping noises, each stepping back but keeping their guard up. Jin stepped back as well, but with a hand on his hip he had the face of a man who had just gotten away with something petty.

"Why does it hurt...?"

 _I saw him die_.

As he lifted himself from the ground, looking just as if not more fragile than he had when Osamu first saw him, an elaborate series of pale green markings appeared in solid lines along both hands, likely continuing upward to his arms under his sweater. They appeared on the sides of his face in the same fashion, coming from under both eyes with a light that reminded Osamu of Jin's sword.

 _I saw him die_.

A shiny, unfamiliar substance began leaking from his wounds, before quickly fading as the skin and flesh around them closed. The fatal shot on his back did the same, and despite Jin having a better perspective of the ugly wound he was the calmest between everyone watching.

His injuries had healed completely, with no logical explanation as to why, and now criss-crossed with alien patterns Yuma started to breathe again.

 _But I_ saw _him die_.

"K-Kill him!" The Neighbor who had been at least somewhat against killing Yuma yelled the command, the sword he held shaking in his grasp, leading Osamu to assume he possessed no mid-range weapon. "Kill him again!"

"Osamu," Jin glanced at him, talking quietly, "protect him until he can do it himself. Only a few seconds."

 _He died_.

"What? I-I can't-"

The third Neighbor, to Yuma's back, shot at Jin suddenly, shattering while at the same time somehow adding to the tense air sitting heavy over their surroundings. However, it was possible they weren't aiming for Jin at all, Osamu considered, watching how easy the man stepped out of harm's way, even with no warning.

 _No_ , he rethought the scenario, _at least to him, it was obvious the Neighbor would shoot. Jin was more than prepared_.

So, for the second time, Yuma was hit from behind, and in this instance Jin did nothing.

 _I saw him die_.

Yuma did not fall, and while the impact did disturb his balance, aside from stumbling he had no reaction. His head hung low, hiding his eyes from Osamu, who was desperate and willing to grasp at straws for answers.

 _But he was shot. Again_.

"What was your name again... Osamu, right..." Yuma was muttering sloppily. "Osamu," he said more clearly, "move."

Yuma looked him in the eye, and Osamu was chilled to the bone. Yuma's pupils were the same green color as the markings that showed no willingness to fade, but under the brightness, Yuma's eyes looked, summarized in one word, dead. He was in more pain than before.

Osamu's limbs responded numbly, his head completely occupied with the person in front of him. He didn't feel himself slowly walking sideways.

Yuma lifted a hand, revealing yet more strange green lines along his palm. He could stare at the Neighbor in front of him without backing down, and despite the status of a soldier they looked just as afraid as Osamu did.

A luminous set of three rings appeared in front of his hand, each one levitating over and slightly larger than the last. As they consistently grew brighter Yuma's face let no emotion slip, and the awe of watching him led Osamu to see that, in the midst of everything, he was beautiful.

Yuma's voice was unforgivingly cold, and even without speaking directly to him it pricked Osamu deeper than he thought it ever could have.

"Leave me... _alone_." The last thing he said to the Neighbor seemed to echo for an endless amount of time, the silence afterwards thick with tension and fear - from both sides.

He shot.

From the rings, there came a flash that was momentarily blinding to Osamu, who couldn't even possess the speed to follow its path. It reminded him of a bullet, minus the ear-piercing sound Osamu felt he had heard too many times that day, but judging between Yuma's current appearance and that of the shot itself, whatever his power was it was in another league.

Osamu's reaction was delayed, watching Yuma like an entranced child, and he was too late to see the Neighbor marked by the death blow. When he did look, the hole in their chest was already there, blood staining the previously tidy gray uniform as Yuma glared.

The Neighbor was trying to speak, but only spat blood after making a series of choking noises intended to form words. They, too, found it impossible to look away, even in their final moments.

As the guard crumpled to a bloody mess on the ground, the other Neighbor ignored Jin completely and, with wild eyes, fired at Yuma for the third time.

"Oops, can't have that," Jin intervened, slashing at the Neighbor's hand and destroying the original trajectory. It was their mistake to think he wouldn't react fast enough to another attempt at Yuma's life, though the soldier only realized this as his bullet passed by Yuma's head unsuccessfully. "Come on, kid," he laughed in Yuma's direction, "you could've gotten this one too."

Yuma said nothing in reply, not even bothering to look at Jin, who made quick work of the remaining Neighbor with the same trained swordsmanship he had displayed prior. Yuma was staring at the dead soldier he had taken the life from. The rings disappeared as he looked away, hollow-eyed, gently lowering his hand.

Osamu didn't know what to think; he stood in the middle of four corpses and their killers, one of which was smiling like nothing happened and the other _literally_ dead on his feet. Osamu's accelerated breathing felt less abnormal than it had mere minutes ago, and he had already grown accustomed to hearing his own heartbeat thumping in his ears. Panic was like an additional sense, he had already been a victim to it several times in such a short period and due to that it was no longer shocking. At this point Osamu could probably get an arm chopped off and think, _'oh, well would'ya look at that.'_

"You alright?" Jin asked Yuma after it had been long enough for his silence to become uncomfortable, walking towards him and putting a hand on his shoulder from behind.

There was no answer, and when Osamu saw Yuma's face again his eyes had changed back. The green was gone, leaving the red seeming darker than before, and one by one the lines faded from his skin.

"...Yuma?" Jin, seeing Yuma's palms return to normal but having no view of his face, spoke again, his tone now laced with a concern he had no interest in hiding.

Yuma still didn't answer him, although his mouth was open and Osamu could tell easily that he _wanted_ to say something, but as emotion began to return to his face it was only fear. His eyes were glazed, and to Osamu, for a blink he truly looked like a shell absent of any person.

Yuma's legs buckled beneath him, and he fell with a sickening thud.


	4. Theory of Survival

_He's dead. He's really, definitely dead this time_.

"He's alive."

Jin was crouched over Yuma's body, his sword away, putting a pair of fingers to the boy's neck as he checked for a pulse. Osamu, not sure whether or not this was even _real_ , knew it couldn't have been more than a few seconds since Yuma fainted, even though he felt he had been standing in place for an eternity. He was itching to escape, despite knowing it would be ultimately pointless to try, but Yuma's strange performance had caught his interest - enough so to the point where he wasn't going to sprint off at the first chance he was given.

"I've taken too long," Jin talked to himself, lifting Yuma over his shoulder and upper back without difficulty. "And now this kid's totally K.O.-ed, not to mention Four-Eyes..." He exhaled loudly through his nose. "Geez, this is tricky. Oh, and, by the way," he added, referring to Osamu, "how fast can you run?"

"Pardon?"

"Y'know, like, running like there's an angry goat behind you or something, are you any good at that?"

"A-An angry... an angry what?"

"Running, Four-Eyes, running and fighting."

"W-W-Wait," Osamu shook his hands back and forth frantically, "you're talking as if you expect I'm coming with you."

"Hm?" Jin looked at him innocently, while slightly adjusting Yuma's position. "You're not coming with me?"

"Well, I, maybe- maybe, I- I don't know, I don't..." Osamu's broken speech refused to organize itself. "I have no idea what's going on, for that matter I don't know if I even _wanna_ know, and I've got a life, I can't just leave out of nowhere-"

"You did," Jin corrected, "you _did_ have a life in the walls." He smiled sympathetically, and Osamu hoped he didn't intend to sound as harsh as he did. "You're a fugitive now, too - Neighbors'll kill you at the drop of a hat if you're lucky, and if not, God knows what'll happen when you're taken in. Judging by that alone, I'd say tagging along is your only chance. Now," he continued to another subject, "fighting and running or carrying a small child and running, pick one."

"N-No, hold on, go back, how the hell am I supposed to 'tag along' with someone I don't even _know_ -"

"If you'd rather choose to lose the life you seem to care about considerably, I'm not stopping you." Jin's voice, though sincere, was audibly rushed. "But if you follow me now, you can come back here later. And although I can't say when 'later' will be, when you do come back you can come back and fight."

His introduction rang in Osamu's head. _'Yuichi Jin, rebellion squadron leader, at your service!'_ Jin said Osamu would be able to fight, fight the Neighbors, he had implied, fight for humanity's freedom.

And when Osamu was told he could fight for humanity, he recalled all the instances he thought he couldn't. Because Osamu Mikumo was just another victim, trapped from the outside world, who until that moment never saw an escape route in his lifetime - yet here one was, having taken the human form of Yuichi Jin.

Jin beamed, having studied Osamu's facial expression closely for any sign of eagerness. Perhaps it wasn't eagerness that he found, but he did find _something_ in the green eyes, something he could at the very least attempt to work with. "Fight, then, Four-Eyes."

 _Fight, then... I think I'll fight_...

"So, running and fighting it is!"

"W-What?"

 _Did I say that out loud?_

Jin stuck a hand into the pocket on the inside of his jacket, and without looking pulled out a fairly small pistol, which he tossed to an unprepared Osamu. He nearly dropped it, catching it with an extended left hand after letting it slip from his right one out of surprise. Osamu, never having held a firearm in his life, and a butter knife being the closest thing to a weapon he'd ever had, looked at Jin in panic.

"Uh, what-what's this? Jin, s-sir, I can't-!"

"Rebellion good, Neighbors bad, they come within two meters take out the knees. Plan?"

"Wait, I-!"

"Yeah, your cooperation is much appreciated!"

Jin was most definitely in a hurry, and it was entirely justifiable, as backup soldiers were probably already on their way to subdue the two of them and Yuma, if they weren't already in wait somewhere. Osamu knew in a part of him that Jin _should_ have been hurrying and would probably die or get captured if he wasn't, but Osamu was also desperate for answers, on top of why Jin had passed him a gun like it was the most normal thing in the world and expected him to fight. When he thought about it, Osamu had absolutely no idea how Jin, even if he _was_ in the rebellion, managed to get weapons past the guards at the city gate, but that was beyond the point. He would figure it out later.

Jin was surprisingly fast for someone carrying the weight of a child on their back, though Osamu assumed Yuma had to be relatively light. He skipped past Osamu, who was uselessly fiddling with the weapon in his hands, and Jin assumed he would follow without further questions.

Osamu did follow him, however mostly out of the combination of him having no idea if he could even fire a gun correctly and the inevitable hell he realized he would come face-to-face with if he _didn't_ follow Jin. He stumbled over his feet, panicked eyes that were terrified of an ambush looking from side to side.

"Hey, wait!" Osamu called out, embarrassed that Jin was still much faster than him even while carrying Yuma, though in Osamu's defense he was carrying the heavy weight of the shock factor. "How the hell do you use this thing? A-And where are we going?"

Jin slowed his pace but refused to stop, looking over his shoulder instead as he guided Osamu around a corner. "You can't shoot? It's pretty self-explanatory, isn't it?"

"O-Of course civilians wouldn't know how," Osamu was wheezing, "a Neighbor wouldn't let us near a weapon, no chance!"

"...So you've no idea how to fight?"

"No, that's what I've been _trying_ to say!"

"They don't even teach you basic self-defense in school?"

Osamu huffed. "Look, I'm sorry my math teacher didn't know how to dropkick a man!"

Jin stopped his running momentum with ease, and Osamu was incredibly grateful for a chance to catch his breath. Already panting even after such a short time, when he looked to Jin, the man was facing him while lowering Yuma from his back.

"Four-Eyes, how strong are you?"

Osamu then came to understand that if he wasn't defending Yuma with a gun he didn't know how to use, he would be _carrying_ Yuma, and suddenly doubted every ounce of strength that somehow existed in his body.

"A-A-Average?" He stammered, questioning his self-evaluation and suddenly wanting to be on the move as much as Jin seemed to; the idea of coming in contact with more Neighbors was terrifying, at least to Osamu.

Instead of setting Yuma on the ground for Osamu to pick up in a proper carrying technique, Jin shifted the boy's position to something more along the lines of bridal style, and dropped him in Osamu's arms with a cheeky smile. "Good luck, then!"

He was at a complete loss for words. On the bright side, Yuma weighed even less than Osamu thought he would, but on the more realistic side he was a terrible runner to begin with, and would probably fall on his face with the added weight of a flower pot.

Jin took the pistol Osamu still held, and the confused latter used the now free hand to get a better grip on Yuma's upper arm. Questions were fighting each other for priority in his head, but as he stared at Yuma, (who Osamu had to double-check to make sure he was _actually_ breathing) and then Jin, and back at Yuma, Osamu gave up and abandoned any chance at even _trying_ to understand what he'd gotten roped into. By now, anything could and would happen, but Osamu just wanted answers. Several answers.

Jin tucked the gun away again, in its place holding the sword Osamu was still somewhat interested in, without activating it. As he tossed the black hilt carelessly from hand to hand, Jin nodded at Osamu. "Now then, Four-Eyes," he turned back around, "shall we be off?"

Osamu didn't respond, and when Jin started running again and Osamu trailed him he thought how he _had_ to be the exact opposite of someone even relatively qualified to be in his situation. He had no fighting experience nor any idea _how_ to fight, lacked physical strength, speed, and had absolutely no clue what he was doing in general. As some would say, 'to succeed, sometimes one must take a shot in the dark', and in Osamu's case that was rather fitting, though he found himself taking a shot in the dark with no idea how to shoot and aiming at an irregularly moving target.

Struggling not to drop Yuma, Osamu was determined not to lose sight of Jin, even in the shaded, complicated alleyways they were going through to avoid the main streets. Even Osamu had only ventured through them a couple of times, and was impressed that Jin was able to navigate the paths so easily. It was possible he could have shoved the entire city's layout into his head beforehand, Osamu theorized.

Osamu knew the weight of the situation was yet to truly set in, and he just about tried to force it to do so, if only to avoid making a stupid decision. He had virtually no reason to trust Jin, apart from the claim that he was seemingly a part of the idolized rebel group, and even so, the only thing to back up that particular claim was his obvious combat skill. Jin was mostly prepared for whatever his mission was, sure, but that couldn't confirm his identity, and for all Osamu knew 'Yuichi Jin' might not have even been his real name.

 _...What am I doing?_

Osamu's legs were practically running on their own, his mind completely absent from the fast-paced present and instead exploring every last reason why he should and then should not trust Jin. When he tried to focus on the situation in front of him, he became conscious of Yuma again and slowed down, (due mostly to Osamu's fear of dropping him, rather than physical weakness) and when he started to zone out his speed also decreased, as he wasn't dedicating his thought patterns to running.

The multiple options presented to Osamu were all equally life-changing, he couldn't deny that, though the one he was most uncertain with also seemed to hold the best possible outcome. Going with Jin was risky for obvious reasons, including Osamu having no true idea of the man's identity and being kept in the dark about where they were even headed, among other things. Though even with the risks and Osamu's overall lack of knowledge surrounding Jin's motives, if all went well Jin presented a stronger chance of staying alive, especially compared to the nonexistent one that came with running off.

Osamu was always the person to have planned ahead for any situation, but for one of the few times in his life he had no idea what to do.

He wanted to live, but going with a near-stranger, to the outside world that was spoken of as a deathtrap to any humans that somehow ventured there, didn't sound as appealing as Osamu thought it would - 'saved by a rebellion soldier and scouted to fight' was much more heroic.

Osamu knew he was a fugitive, and by now, just minutes later, his name and face would have already been plastered everywhere. In all his confusion, it came to light that Jin _was_ his last option if Osamu valued his own life, but it was still undeserving of the label of a 'good' choice.

Osamu shook his head twice, not trying to clear his head but at least trying to get it to focus on the ground in front of him. He was lucky not to have had already tripped or ran head-first into a wall, but without a rest soon Osamu was certain that he would. Jin had not slowed at all, his stride not even looking tired in the slightest, and Osamu couldn't help but envy him.

If they were indeed headed towards one of the gates, the alleyways were definitely the long route. Osamu couldn't protest, however, Jin was clearly avoiding the main streets and human eye, which had been successful so far. He turned around a building sharply, Osamu doing the same after him, his left hand almost slipping from Yuma in the motion.

 _We've_ got _to be close_ , Osamu hoped, Yuma's weight, despite not being much, having gotten his stamina to betray him early on. In the middle of such a tall maze of structures even the massive wall surrounding the city was outside Osamu's field of vision, and he desperately counted on Jin for any sign that they were to slow down. None came, and he couldn't have _not_ been hearing the atrocious sound of Osamu's breathing at the time, but he didn't do so much as acknowledge it. If a Neighbor were to get past Jin and go after Osamu and Yuma, the both of them would be, to speak bluntly, 'completely screwed'.

Osamu's legs were on the verge of falling off and ditching him to seek a better life when Jin finally slowed to a jog, then stopped altogether. He stretched his arms, dormant sword base still in his hand, and while Osamu struggled for air Jin looked perfectly fine. "Four-Eyes, you doing alright over there?"

Yuma felt like a pile of bricks when Osamu stopped, choking as he tried to catch his breath. He just wanted to sit down, but in the context of the situation wouldn't dare, and with the already occupied hands supporting Yuma, Osamu managed a weak double thumbs-up.

 _I don't even_ want _to see how bad I look_ , he thought, hoping Jin's impression wasn't as horrible as it easily could have been.

"Uh, I-I, yeah, ye...ah," Osamu spoke between heavy breaths, seriously wondering how Jin would react if he set Yuma down. "Yea...h, yeah I'm... I'm good, I'm great... great actually... just gi...mme... just, ju-just gimme a sec..."

Jin did wait a moment but not a long one, then turning on one foot to behold Osamu, in all his glory, who was still painfully red-faced. Not to be denying the presence of sweat on Jin's own face, but apart from that he didn't seem winded at all. "Okay, two things: first off," he laughed in the pause, "you don't have to carry him like like that."

Osamu's face somehow became redder than it already was.

"Though it's probably my fault for not giving you the chance to pick him up properly," Jin admitted sheepishly. "Beyond that, though, we're about a street from one of the gates, but between us and it there's who knows how many Neighbors and a fair amount of civilians. As for advice, don't get shot, stabbed, or whatever else, don't get _him_ ," he gestured to Yuma, "shot, stabbed, or whatever else, - I mean, if he dies again, unlike the last time I have no idea if he'll come back or not - and try to avoid the thick of the fighting in general and make a break for the gate. Got it?"

Osamu shook his head 'no' in a panic, his mind blurred now for reasons other than running. "W-W-We're, we're actually g-going outside? No, you said that already, you definitely said that, b-but I don't think- I d-don't think that- wait, scratch that, like, I, I think..." Osamu's mouth had no idea what it was trying to say, though his mind didn't either so the inner chaos was more of a team effort.

He took a breath, trying to calm down, his voice becoming quieter as he did and he hoped Jin wouldn't have a problem hearing it. "I... I just don't know what's going on, I don't know what's going to happen and I'm _really_ scared. Look, no offense or anything, but I don't know much about you but right now it seems like if I want even a chance to stay alive it comes paired with getting swept up in whatever... whatever _this_ is." He put Yuma down, who, if not for the injuries looked like he was sleeping, and as he went to pick him up again in a more efficient carrying style Osamu stopped. "I... what... What am I even doing...?"

Osamu knew he was being a burden, he knew well enough that if almost anyone else had been in his place Jin would have already been on his way with Yuma safe from further harm. Osamu was slowing him down, and retracing everything that had happened he saw how easy it would've been for Jin to leave him behind to die, and while Osamu was glad he was still alive it came with the question of _'why?'_ Jin had obviously been in a rush to leave, and yet there he stood, completely still, looking thoughtfully at an Osamu whose everyday life had just been crushed before his eyes.

Jin took a deep breath of his own, then sighing, and tilted his head up towards nothing in particular before his gaze returned to Osamu. "I'd like to apologize, then - suppose I overlooked how overwhelming all this must be. And while it's true you'll probably end up dying if you stay here, in the end it's entirely your decision whether to go outside or not." He tried to grin awkwardly. "I know you really don't have any reason to trust me, and personally I'd be surprised if you did, but if it means anything I can promise there's a better world out there, and soon there'll be a better one in here, too."

Osamu remembered the feeling he'd got when Jin had first drawn his sword, a feeling of absolute confidence that Jin was a part of the rebellion as he had said, that if Osamu was looking for a person that could change things, here one was. He wasn't sure what had happened to the feeling, but he wished it would come back, it was needed more now than it was then.

There was also the matter of Yuma, in terms of Osamu having watched him die and get back up again looking like a sci-fi alien, a sight he knew he wouldn't soon forget, if ever. Jin seemed to have understood what happened, and Osamu could bet on him being allowed to explain it.

 _'And soon there'll be a better one in here, too,'_ .

Osamu Mikumo never saw himself as the hero type, and he never saw himself capable of fighting for anything. Or, not lacking capability itself, but never presented with the opportunity to utilize it. So with this, there was a choice Osamu never thought he would have been able to make, and his idea of what a normal reality was began to change by the second.

At the time, Osamu only knew that his decision would change his life, he didn't know how so, and he greatly underestimated the scale in which it would. And whether or not this change would hold a triumph that managed to outweigh the damages, he was also yet to find out.

He didn't quite know what was going to happen, but Osamu Mikumo decided to fight.

"Someone was killed at the gate today."

A teenage boy looked up from a stack of papers in response to the monotone female voice, coming from the opposite side of the room, which was lit strangely with a series of violet lights. He fought the nervousness that crept upon him after hearing the sentence. He already knew what kind of point the woman wanted to bring up, and she hadn't the only one to mention it.

"...Is that so?" He responded just as dully, though turned in her direction rather than speaking with his head buried in battle reports.

"I'd assumed you'd be more bothered by it, Hyuse."

Hyuse flinched, glad the woman wasn't looking at him to notice. His voice stayed calm; by now he'd become used to questions surrounding the subject he _knew_ the conversation was headed towards, and as a result could counter them fairly well. "I'm not."

"Is that so?" She said, and Hyuse didn't know if the woman was mimicking him or not, but he assumed she wasn't as it would have been oddly uncharacteristic for her to do so. "They haven't tracked the culprit yet, but with the number of incidents in similar killing styles most people can make educated guesses."

"Rebels aren't affiliated with the house they 'fight' for," Hyuse clarified firmly, picking up the woman's implication. "You especially should know that, Mira. Won't they will be dealt with cleanly?"

Mira still didn't look up, idly typing something. "Of course I know, but that's not going to stop people from getting angry over it. While the houses and their heads are not responsible for any rebel-induced violence, and in fact would like to put an end to it, that doesn't change the fact that they're still getting blamed."

Hyuse spoke politely to his superior, and would avoid any conflict at all costs, which was easy as Mira hopefully felt the same. "Are you trying to agitate me?"

"No," she answered plainly. "Take it as a warning, rather."

"I assure you it's not necessary."

From the end of the table, Mira took her eyes from her report and focused on Hyuse, face deadpan as ever and her voice matched. "My only honest interest would not be the fighting itself, but your own loyalties - you can wish as much you'd like to avoid a war but in the end everyone ends up on one side of the line or the other." She went back to her work, shifting attention between her screen and the material pages on her desk. "Understand?"

Hyuse didn't want to believe he was visibly sweating but his face thought otherwise, and he cursed himself for letting the weaker emotions pass by. "I do," he announced curtly, then turned around and looked back to his own work. "There's no reason for concern."

"Well, that's the hope."

Hyuse knew Mira wasn't trying to threaten him, that wasn't at all her aim. However, it did seem that way as she wasn't the first to prod him about his loyalties since the beginning of the chain of illegal fights she had briefly touched on before. Even people Hyuse cared deeply about had doubted him, all their words summarized in one phrase that he hoped he could avoid answering, for better or for worse.

 _'So, who would you rather die for?'_

* * *

 **A/N: (figured I should start posting the notes I leave on AO3 here as well, whoops :p)**

 **Genesis Zero highlights so far:**

 **Osamu carrying Yuma like a princess**

 **?**

 **Concerning the last bit there, I remember wanting to foreshadow the Neighbors' situation in the original story around this point, but totally missed the chance to! Especially with the addition of Galopoula, (I added them into the plot! :D)I'm excited to focus on their inner conflict and decided to throw some hints about it in this chapter.**

 **Also: No chapter next week, I'll be taking a break to get work done on other stuff as well as my WT Secret Santa project! ^^**


	5. Into the Painted Future

Osamu had discovered carrying Yuma (or, Kuga, as he should probably refer to him) the way Jin had done before was far easier, as he suspected, so long as he didn't lose his grip on the smaller wrist. That was among other worries, though, including the only thing between him and certain death being, currently, Yuichi Jin and a building.

"Don't lose sight of me," Jin was saying, adjusting his jacket collar. "The gate's been taken care of, and as long as the people on the other side can see Yuma you'll be let through and everything should run smoothly from there."

 _So he does have allies here_... Osamu restrained himself from saying the thought out loud, not wanting to hold Jin up any longer, and concluded he would meet them for himself soon enough.

Osamu wondered what it would feel like, stepping outside, with a pack of strangers no less. When he was a child he had always pictured the world as some sort of wasteland, as did many others, and since his earlier years Osamu was uncertain as to how, exactly, an entire organization could survive out there without being killed or disbanded.

"...and basically, try to stick by buildings, blend in or something, and a few seconds after I distract 'em the first attack is your cue. Alright?"

 _Oh dammit, he was saying something_.

Osamu had hardly heard a word before ' _and basically_ ,' but refused to mention it. He was burdening Jin as it was, and it would only become worse the longer they stayed in one spot, so Osamu nodded and only hoped his subconscious had somehow absorbed the majority of Jin's instructions. "R-Right, yeah."

Jin grinned, resembling himself when he'd first came in contact with Osamu and Yuma. Although Osamu had no way of seeing how many guards were posted by their chosen exit, based on how lucky they'd been not to have already been attacked a second time, Osamu's first assumption was that the odds _had_ to be stacked against them. He was never this lucky, ever, and it was better to expect the worst and be mentally prepared for it (he really wasn't, though) than expect the best and then have the worst live up to its destructive potential.

When Jin turned his back to Osamu, Kuga felt a lot heavier.

 _Wait, so, what do I do exactly?_ Osamu's inner thoughts were having a crisis. _Something a few seconds after Jin does whatever Jin does, right, but what do_ I _do? Okay, I should've been listening, definitely should've been listening. First attack is my cue, don't drop Yuma, oh my_ God _please don't drop Yuma that would be a disaster, like, more of a disaster than this already is, seriously if this could get any more chaotic that would d_ -

" _Greetings_ , Neighbors from Mikado,"

 _That's it. I'm dead. I'm_ totally _dead_.

"I assume you've been looking for me, and took it upon myself to save you guys the trouble! My deepest apologies, however, it seems you're standing in the way of my escape route, which I _very_ much need." It was Jin, having stepped out of the alley's shelter and was currently confronting the guards verbally. Osamu still couldn't estimate how many there were, but regardless of numbers he hoped for the sake of his life that Jin was prepared to fight, weird green sword and all.

Some soldier responded, but Osamu couldn't piece together what they were saying and barely managed to catch the expectedly harsh undertone to their voice. Jin's footsteps, on the other hand, were able to be heard more clearly, though gradually became quieter as he slowly advanced forward.

"They're holding fire..." Osamu said to himself, originally intending the words for Kuga before remembering the latter was unconscious - on his own back, no less, but in Osamu's defense the shock of the entire situation was one hell of a drug.

Jin said something else in reply, and with a now greater physical distance between them Osamu could only pick out _'hope you won't mind'_ and a snarky _'thank you in advance'_.

"The first attack is my cue, first attack is my cue." Osamu spoke to himself again, attempting to fit together the few puzzle pieces he had found to somehow create the entire picture. It was almost useless to even try, and Osamu guessed he would mess _something_ up, but if anything he wanted to minimize the amount of damage that would result from it.

His cue came sooner than he wanted, and not from Jin.

Osamu had heard one too many guns fire that day, but with each one they never failed to make him jump. Yuma's hand slipped from his when he ruthless sound found his senses, and in a sudden panic Osamu grabbed it again before it fell behind his shoulder, nearly tripping over his own feet and letting go of Yuma's legs in the process. A graceful creature, at his finest.

 _Do I go now? Or did Jin mean_ his _attack? Wait, no, Jin does have a gun, so that could've been hi-_

Another shot trailed the first, and the scene Osamu had no visuals of erupted into a flurry of noises. Based on what he could hear there seemed to be other sword-wielders as well, and Osamu was desperate to shelter his ears from the mess of clashing metal and frequent gunshots.

 _...Screw it, I'm going._

Osamu took a deep breath, eyes closed as he did, and when he opened them again only the fear choking him prevented him from mindlessly yelling as he ran off into what he assumed to be a bloodbath.

The sun, previously blocked by buildings on either side of Osamu, momentarily blinded him when he stepped out. Squinting, he blinked twice, and his running pace slowed as Osamu instinctively looked away from the sky. His vision returned in a second or so, but a single second felt unnervingly longer in a situation such as this, as Osamu strained his eyes to see properly.

Osamu couldn't see Jin at first glance, and dread instantly fell upon him as he estimated somewhere around twenty or perhaps even thirty Neighbor guards in the thick of things. He shook his head, though not daring to look away from the fighting mess, and tried to force himself to focus on the task at hand.

He saw a strange smoke of some kind, and even as he refused to believe it the thin substance appeared to be coming from the Neighbors' wounds. (Wounds at least gave him some hope, they displayed Jin was putting up a decent fight thus far.) Behind it, another material followed, seeping out slower but even from his distance Osamu could see it was inhumanly bright. To compare, he thought, it looked like what Kuga's wounds had.

 _No, noooo no no no no_ , Osamu told himself sternly, _questions later, running now, don't get distracted, this_ _probably_ _isn't the weirdest thing I've seen today, I can figure it out later._

The sounds of a violent fight were louder, and partially because of Jin's instruction and partially because of his own instinct, Osamu was just about glued to the nearest structure, running along it's side with an uneven stride pattern and only dedicating a fraction of his attention to the unconscious child flung across his back. He had no idea if Jin was actually winning.

Around all the gates, the city seemed to go on as normal, and the only major difference was the large area of space between two rows of buildings, somewhat resembling a courtyard. However, a few meters from the gate itself, all architecture cut off until the wall appeared, and in that short area there existed more gray-paved empty space, offering absolutely no shelter - not that running next to a building gave Osamu shelter anyways, but it somehow felt reassuring.

He felt sick hearing bodies fall, and as he tried helplessly to push the emotion down the possibility that Jin was one of the fallen terrified him. The rate of which gunshots were being fired had went down since he last paid mind to it, which was a good sign, but there was still no telling if he would make it outside alive, and then there was the entire matter concerning what would happen when he was actually out there.

The row of buildings came to an end before Osamu realized it, and he didn't notice himself gripping Yuma's cold hand tighter when it did. He wanted to close his eyes, he wanted to close his eyes and go to sleep and then wake up like any other morning because this couldn't have possibly been real.

"Hey, who's this guy?"

Osamu froze up, pain shooting through his knee and already sore legs from stopping so suddenly. It was incredibly stupid to stop running like that, he would come to think about later, but Osamu would also eventually come to think about how his common sense had completely abandoned him by that point.

The voice was high-pitched, sounding both irritated and confused at the same time, and when Osamu timidly turned his head left to face the speaker he was surprised to see a girl probably a couple years older than him. She wore a jacket slightly resembling Jin's, though hers was colored a bright green and fully zipped, accompanied by elbow-length gloves of the same color. Strawberry blonde hair was tied in what looked like a modified ponytail, and her face was clearly judging him.

"Jin, just what the _hell_ have you done now?" She scoffed, looking away from Osamu, and when Osamu followed her gaze he was shocked to see the amount of Neighbors had decreased by a ridiculous amount, making him wish he had spared some focus to keep track of the fight. Jin was easy to pick out now, and the only soldiers left were seemingly all close-range, each one clearly tired already and bleeding the strange, glittery material Osamu was yet to understand.

When the victor turned around as the last guard had been picked off, Osamu was horrified to see it was coming from Jin's wounds as well.

"Oh, Konami! That's Four-Eyes. Yuma's the unconscious one." Jin waved both hands simultaneously, smiling normally without showing any reaction to the faint smoke and bright powdery substance coming from a cut on his cheek and multiple other minor lacerations, an appearance Osamu had seen only on Neighbors and Kuga.

The girl, presumably Konami, took a deep breath, the kind of breath people took when they were just about ready to punt someone into the Sun. "Yuichi Jin, I'm giving you approximately thirty seconds to explain why the hell glasses boy here's got the Neighbors' path to annihilating us on his back."

Osamu paused. "The, uh, the Neighbors' path to _whatnow_ -"

Jin was laughing, and between him and Konami neither of them seemed to be counting the seconds until reinforcements arrived to wipe them out. "Well, first he got shot, died, then un-died and pulled some Trion stunt before passing out, and Four-Eyes carried him for a bit, fast forward a few minutes and here we are, with both of them still alive so we've got the green light." Jin finished with a hand clap, blinking and not taking any notice to Konami looking like she was going to strangle him.

"...So, then," Konami sighed and ignored Jin, possibly not even taking him seriously and speaking to Osamu instead, "I assume you can fight?"

Osamu bit his bottom lip, itching to run away, even if it was only from one way of death to another. "Yeah, I, um, I-I cannot, but what was that you said about Kuga, the whole, 'Neighbors' path to annihilating us' thing...?"

"Not important right now," Konami dismissed him, leaving Osamu hanging on a word as he looked for answers to questions on top of the already-existing heap of them. "You can tell me about how Jin royally let everything go South later, er, Four-Eyes."

"My _name_ is Osamu Mi-"

"Where's Reiji and Kyosuke?" Jin interrupted him. After a minute without Osamu seeing a Neighbor who wanted him dead, the boy had calmed down to some extent, only for that calmness to be revoked with Jin's suddenly tense voice and a reminder that the man wasn't bleeding blood.

"Outside, probably wondering why you're taking so long." Konami didn't care to hide her annoyance whatsoever, but Jin didn't act like he was offended.

"Right, right." Jin stretched his right arm, the uninjured one, and then spoke towards Osamu as he walked closer towards him and the gate, which Osamu still couldn't see beyond a short tunnel in the wall. "You should be alright from this point if you follow my lead, and if need be Konami can carry Yuma 'til we get back."

Konami made some sort of a surprised _'huh?'_ noise, while Osamu found it completely unrealistic how casual these people were acting. "Y-Yeah, that'd be appreciated," he said, "but she really doesn't have to, but shouldn't... shouldn't we be going?"

Going _where_ , he asked himself, Osamu still clueless about where he was being taken. It was safe to assume they were headed to a base of some sort, but the location of said base and what it would even be like was a mystery.

"Four-E- _Osamu's_ right," Jin replied, waltzing past him and Konami. "Reiji and Kyosuke are probably wondering why you're taking so long, Konami."

Konami muttered something under her breath, probably an insult to Jin, then extended a hand to Osamu, signaling that she would take Kuga from there.

 _Thank God_ , Osamu breathed a sigh of relief as he let Kuga fall gently from his shoulders. Konami lifted him from the ground, with less care than Osamu or even Jin had, but it was decent enough to the point where he wouldn't fall easily. Osamu noticed his shoulders hurt a bit, but it was far easier to move without the extra weight.

Jin waved Konami and him over without turning around, and Osamu immediately felt his heart rate rise again. _This is really happening_ , he repeated in his head over and over, walking forward almost without his own will. _I'm going outside_.

The temperature dropped without hesitation under the stone tunnel's shade, and Osamu felt a shiver go up his spine, though likely for reasons apart from the cold. The gate, usually barred and locked with intense security, was open for the first time Osamu had seen it, and it took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the brightness they were met with as Osamu slipped under the tunnel roof.

"You're late," was what greeted them as they neared the exit, Osamu's heart pounding more intensely with each step. He felt as if he'd jumped straight out of his skin when he heard the deep voice, and every muscle went stiff with panic as Osamu's first assumption was that he was going to be a target. Again.

"Yo, Reiji!" Jin was expecting the speaker. In the darker lighting, Osamu noticed Jin's injuries had stopped bleeding, and now all that was visible was a faint glow left under the skin. "Apologies for the timing, things went a bit differently than we planned."

"In other words," Konami intervened, "Jin got him shot."

The new person, Reiji, who was intimidatingly tall to Osamu and wore a stern face, looked at Jin in the same _'I honestly cannot believe you right now but I knew this would happen'_ way as Konami had earlier. "You got him _shot_?"

"I mean, he'll live."

Reiji and Konami exchanged a glance, one that said what was left unsaid and harbored an amusing amount of annoyance, leaving Osamu out of a silent communication. Reiji only noticed him then, and instinctively, Osamu tensed. He looked like he was going so say something, but apparently thought better of it and settled on asking questions later. Which was a relief, to Osamu's calmness, though even if he _could_ have explained himself normally he was aware they were already pushing the clock as it was.

When Reiji turned towards the outside, Osamu only then saw the weapon he carried, and while technically being a firearm it was several times bigger than anything he'd seen that day and looked like it could fire multiple shots at once. If Neighbors had been going after him with _those_ , Osamu would've died in sixty seconds flat, if not less.

The four of them, with the addition of Yuma, continued towards the exit with a fast-paced walk, Osamu warily looking over his shoulder one too many times until Konami snapped at him to hurry up. A vehicle came into view when Osamu looked forwards, and he hopelessly tried to keep his breathing steady, at least to the point where nobody would notice he was a pinch away from losing it.

His best guess was that in front of him was a military vehicle, possibly previously retired, and while straining his eyes Osamu could barely see a figure in the driver's seat. Although the vehicle blocked most of his view of the outside, the world he could see was pale, blank, and to Osamu looked like another planet.

Until then he didn't think he was as terrified as he was, and it had taken that long to set in.

Reiji had already opened the passenger side door, and Konami had placed Yuma down and was reaching for the back one when she noticed Osamu was standing still. "What, don't tell me you're _still_ questioning whether or not to drag your feet along?" She asked rudely, raising an eyebrow. "Going back in there is basically suicide, I don't get why you'd even consider there to be a choice here."

"W-Well, I-"

"We've got, like, ten seconds," Jin laughed, "but I for one wouldn't want you to die the moment you step back in that city. In the end, like I said if you'd prefer to give up it's your decision, but I'm not going to let a kid walk straight to his death without at least putting up a fight."

Without Yuma to occupy him, Osamu looked awkward as he fiddled with his hands, unable to meet anyone's eyes. "I don't... _want_ to die," he decided, certain that nobody beyond Jin's distance could understand him. "...But I can't just-" he began, then cutting himself off when he realized he didn't know what he was trying to say.

"Hey!" Konami shouted, already having put Yuma inside and had one foot on the door herself. "I swear, you two act like we have all the time in the world, have a dramatic monologue later!"

Reiji squinted at her in confusion, and muttered _"dramatic monologue...?"_ under his breath, while Jin didn't respond. "Come along," he encouraged, despite Konami's groaning in the background, "we'll help you. Think of it as three things," Jin added, after a short pause. "You have to choose one, and sometimes one might seem easier or safer than another, but when you decide based off of that criteria you'll regret it, whether it be instantly after or some time in the future. And with that, Four-Eyes," Jin turned around then, only glancing over his shoulder as he saluted towards Osamu once more.

"You can fight, you can live, or you can die."


	6. For the Gone and The Leaving

**Chapter 5: For the Gone and The Leaving**

Osamu was freezing. Everything around him was a blur of dark colors, changing out of the corner of his eye with each tiny movement, and as he listened to the space above his head cry out in anguish the rest of the world remained silent.

It was raining.

Black suits and dresses were shoulder-to-shoulder in a tight group, sheltered from the droplets' harsh decent under equally dark umbrellas nearly matching their attire. Among them, Osamu's empty stare fell upon the huddle's centerpiece, as absent of life as the crowd's faces.

A gravestone, adorned with flowers that had a strange contrast to the surrounding dullness. There was no coffin, there would be no corpse to fill it thus the mourners were not offered one, though in all actuality they were aware they had been lucky enough to have gotten away with a funeral service in the first place. 'Amatori Rinji', read the gray slab, the name of a man presumed dead after four months of being missing. The official search had actually ended after three months, the Neighbor forces not having wanted to waste any more manpower after that, but Rinji's friends and family had kept up the efforts for another four weeks until they were threatened to stop.

There was never much hope to begin with - when someone went missing within one of the walled cities, if they were still inside it would be only a matter of time until they were found. The most likely explanation was that Rinji had escaped somehow without causing an uproar, as the Neighbors had rarely, if ever, taken people without informing someone within their family. A force of that strength had no need to be secret about the abductions on their hands, and if the person's family protested they could be wiped out with no difficulty. So it was assumed Rinji had left the walls, and with what people knew about the fate belonging to people who attempted such a feat, had died soon after.

Someone was saying something over the sounds of rain and occasional thunder, but Osamu wasn't listening anymore. It was strange, he had thought, how a person who had been in your life for as long as you remembered could suddenly vanish, just like that. It was strange how you would go to sleep the night before expecting to see someone the next day, like you always would, and when you'd wake they wouldn't be there. It happened with no warning, there was no evidence as to why he would leave, and as much as people denied it and acted like nothing had changed, Rinji Amatori had gone.

Osamu glanced down at the girl standing beside him, her short black hair blending in with the funeral's atmosphere. She was, by a great margin, the one Osamu was most concerned about, even more so than her parents. Chika Amatori, age eleven at the time, was Rinji's younger sister, and the day the Neighbors announced him 'dead' was the first time Osamu had ever seen her cry. On top of all the grief she had also become terrified, and even though there was hardly anything that pointed towards the Neighbors being responsible she lost any trust she had in those who had the power to throw her outside the walls after Rinji.

She had been staring at the grave since the service began, Osamu having never caught her eyes moving once. It was nerve-wracking to see Chika like this, and distraught as he was over Rinji he also felt the need to make sure nothing would happen to Chika as a result of what became of her brother.

Osamu failed, he decided later. Another three weeks passed, and Chika Amatori disappeared.

The first few minutes of their commute had a strange feeling to it, until a young woman Osamu hadn't seen until then finally started conversation. There had been not one but two others he'd met after Reiji, one of them being the driver, Kyosuke Karasuma, (who Konami referred to as 'Torimaru'), and the lively personality that was Shiori Usami. Usami obviously had at least some amount of medical training, being able to confidently treat Jin's wounds, and also seemed to serve as an operator that worked the more technical things within the team.

Usami was ecstatic when she saw Osamu was coming with them, going on about 'glasses power' or something like that, which was what broke the previously awkward mood. Karasuma didn't have nearly as much enthusiasm as she did, but did acknowledge Osamu with a quiet nod, and asked Jin about him instead.

"He helped me get Yuma here," Jin had explained, sitting across from Osamu in vertically arranged rows of seats on either side of their vehicle. "Neighbors saw his face, though, which is why he's with us instead of back in there."

Karasuma seemed to understand enough, and focused on driving after that. Reiji had also been silent for the majority of the time, and even Jin was only answering questions thrown at him by Konami and Usami. Osamu wasn't entirely sure what he would even _say_ if he _were_ to talk, so he zoned out from the others' conversations early on and let his mind wander for some time.

Osamu had considered his mother multiple times already, but never deeply enough to think about how the events that had fallen upon him would affect her. By the time he'd left she had probably already gotten word of it, and Osamu tried to believe that it would be better for her emotional state to have her son labeled missing rather than confirmed dead. He would have to ask Jin if he could contact her somehow, to at least let her know that he was still alive.

 _She's probably worried sick_ , Osamu thought, wanting to kick himself for not thinking through how his mother would feel. He wasn't even certain if it would have changed his decision to leave, but if he'd realized the impact it would have on her he undoubtedly would have scrambled to find some way to contact Kasumi Mikumo, for what could've been his last opportunity to.

Osamu had no idea what the military would do to her, which scared him to no end. It would be inhumane to inflict harm upon someone because of something they had no part in, but any Neighbor Osamu had heard about didn't seem like they would have a problem with it. If he could do one thing apart from briefly contacting Kasumi, Osamu wanted to confirm that his mother was completely unrelated to what he'd gotten himself into, and spare her from any kind of brutal interrogation - if she got hurt because of his actions, there would be no forgiving himself.

 _Man, I really am... an idiot_.

"Osaaamu."

"Os _aaaaa_ mu."

"Please, just kick him or something!"

"Well, aren't you offering the warmest welcome."

"Wha- hey, I-!" Oh, wait, there he is."

There was a dull ache in the back of Osamu's head, stretching down to his neck, and his ears barely processed the voices that were coming through. For a good few seconds everything was meshed together in a dark screen, and when he opened his eyes it took a bit for the world to return back to it's normal state from a lazy blur.

His eyes were heavy, and Osamu looked around as the rest of his body regained consciousness. The colors surrounding him were bland, mechanical, until his vision turned upwards and caught sight of a familiar shade of blue.

"Good morning!" Jin chimed, standing directly in front of Osamu, with Konami a couple steps behind him.

Ignoring the pain that shot through his head when he held it straight up, Osamu's dreariness evaporated in an instant when he remembered where he was and what must have happened, having no recollection of the trip from the time after having an inner conversation with himself about his mother. "D-Did I... did I _fall asleep_?"

Jin nodded, but unlike Konami he was still acting overly-happy and responded in a friendly tone. "You did! No worries, though, I'm only sorry we couldn't get you something more comfortable to rest your head on."

Osamu felt himself turn bright red, and the presence Konami glaring at him from an angle wasn't helping. "I'm, I, I'm sorry, I didn't think I was tired or anything..."

"No worries, I said," Jin repeated himself, laughing in between phrases and still talking warmly. "Everyone else went inside, though, so unless you want to get checked for injuries or something Konami can take you to a room."

She turned around in protest. "I can do _what_ -?"

"Th-Thank you," Osamu stammered, unintentionally speaking in the middle of Konami's sentence as he wobbled to his feet, luckily shorter than the roof of their transportation. He spoke blindly, and didn't question everything as he usually would, his mind still in the process of waking up and understanding everything around him.

Jin beckoned him outside, and as him and Konami stepped out Osamu's knees almost gave out under him. He was _outside_ , and more importantly, outside alive, but having no idea how far he was from Mikado City and no idea what the world around him would even look like.

Jin noticed Osamu's hesitation, and stuck his head through the open door frame. "You okay, Four-Eyes?"

 _So we're back to 'Four-Eyes' again_ , Osamu sighed, having took for granted the times Jin referred to him by his actual name. He nodded quickly, though when he took a step forward his movements were shaky and his legs and shoulders were still sore from earlier. Not significant enough to need a medical examination, he thought, but it was still a pain.

He took a deep breath in, then deep breath out, not knowing entirely what to expect. There were no open windows where he was sitting, but behind Jin, outside of the vehicle everything looked equally dark as it was inside.

 _Well, duh_ , he inwardly slapped himself, _of_ course _we'd be inside already, was I really expecting to be parked outside?_

They were in a structure Osamu assumed was a hangar, with a row of flickering lights hanging from the ceiling and a cold draft coming from somewhere he couldn't identify. The floor was metal, matching with walls on all sides, and as Osamu's shoe tapped the cold surface he had to keep himself from stumbling - outside or not, it was still the kind of situation that felt like a fever dream. Light came in from the windows, but when one looked through them only a blue sky was visible.

"Come on," Konami said, clearly reluctant, standing with her arms crossed. "Shiori's probably told most people that you're here already, so you shouldn't get too many weird stares."

"Thank you...?" Osamu wasn't certain that was the right kind of response, but he was even less certain what _was_.

Jin waved goodbye and walked in the opposite direction, towards the far door, while Konami led Osamu towards a smaller one that led away from the exit most likely leading to the outside, due to its superior size. He barely saved himself from tripping over a discrete loose panel in the floor, and was glad Konami hadn't been looking at him to see.

Konami typed a passcode into a control panel attached to the door, and in response it slid open smoothly. Osamu didn't have a clear picture in mind of what their base would look like, but what he saw was definitely not close to what he _could_ envision. He couldn't tell if the walls were made of metal or not, but they appeared to be, though in contrast with the hangar they were painted a relaxing shade of pale gray-blue that shimmered when light touched it. The floor was silver, similar to that of the hangar but of a lighter color, and when Osamu looked down the hallway he and Konami had entered, multiple doors were visible along the wall.

"This way," Konami interrupted Osamu's gawking, having already started walking without him. He followed her a few meters, the hallway's appearance extremely repetitive, before turning left down a corridor that also looked identical.

"So?" She broke the silence first, looking sideways at Osamu. "What led you to come here?"

"I think Jin mentioned it," he replied, moderately surprised Konami was speaking to him. "The, uh, the soldiers caught me helping him and Yuma - well, just Yuma, actually - so I didn't really have much of a choice."

"That's all?" Konami prodded. "No hero complex or quest for revenge kind of thing, then? You're pretty lucky if you don't know at least one person taken by Neighbors."

"W-Well, I mean, I did know a couple of people that went missing, but I don't want revenge or anything."

Konami raised an eyebrow, and Osamu shrunk under her look. "That's admirable, I suppose. Were you close?"

 _Is she_ supposed _to be getting information out of me, or is she just being nosy?_ Osamu asked himself, uncomfortable about laying out parts of the past even he didn't like to remember. _I guess there's no harm in telling her, but still_...

"Yeah," he admitted, shuffling his hands. "One was my tutor since I was a kid, and the other his younger sister. I knew them for as long as I can remember, so it was definitely a shock."

Konami looked sympathetic, wearing a face Osamu didn't think he'd see on her anytime soon. "That's rough. Though they really weren't your motivation for coming here? Like, we've had people show up before because they wanted to save missing friends and family, so it wouldn't be abnormal or anything."

"Wait, really?" Osamu stopped walking for a moment, Konami pausing as well when she noticed. "Can you guys actually find the people that go missing?"

"It's a _lot_ harder to do if they were taken by Neighbors, but still possible," Konami explained, "and if they disappeared under other circumstances there's a much higher chance if we don't have to infiltrate one of the Neighbors' cities, and I'm sure people will be happy to help you if they see it realistic. How long ago did your friends go missing?"

"About three years ago," Osamu informed her, beforehand having had no idea that Chika and Rinji's cases would be presented to him like this, and began to see a glittering reason why he was there. "Chika and Rinji Amatori, by this time would be ages fourteen and twenty-one."

Konami stared at him, her mouth having fallen slightly open and eyes stretched. She was completely quiet, and Osamu felt himself starting to visibly sweat again.

 _Did I say something wrong?_ He worried, not wanting to be the first to end the silence but also not wanting it to go on for any longer. _I did tell her it was three years ago, that's probably too long a time_.

"...Did I hear you right? Amatori? Chika Amatori?"

"What? Y-Yes, you did...Why?"

"And your family name was?"

"Mikumo?"

Konami stood there and thought for a moment, seeming to be considering something extraordinarily important, while Osamu was dumbfounded as to how she would recognize Chika's name.

 _No way_...

"I don't... I don't think I'm the right person to tell you this, but..." Konami began, considering her words as they came out. Some deeply buried part of Osamu was expecting her next sentence, but it still turned out to be a sentence that could sweep his legs out under him, one that even the parts of him Osamu was aware of would have never expected.

"...Chika's here, alive."

Osamu didn't think the words reached his core at first, but a weird emptiness swamped him the instant they were heard. Was it shock? Probably. It was a different kind of shock, though, different from what he'd felt when Jin introduced himself, or when he saw Kuga wake from the dead.

He tried to say something, and it was a clutter of words that would at first barely manage to convey his emotions, but he figured the shaking limbs and white face would do it for him. "Wha-I, n-no, that's...th-that shouldn't be... she's... sh-sh-she's alive?"

Konami's own expression had changed to a more cheerful one, and seeing her Osamu's began to shift as well. "Short black hair, violet eyes, right?"

 _This is... Is this really happening...?_ "Yeah, th-that sounds like her," Osamu announced out loud, his voice uneven but his mood had certainly lifted.

"Man, if you'd mentioned her earlier we would've told you before now - it's a small world, isn't it?" Konami seemed a lot more open towards Osamu now, and he wondered if she was a friend of Chika's. "Change of plans, then, someone else'll give you a room later."

She continued in the the direction they were already going, sharply increasing her pace while Osamu followed her through the maze of hallways he _knew_ he would get lost in at some point. Konami traveled like she knew them well, though, and Osamu bet on her knowing exactly where they were going as questions messed with his normal train of thought.

 _Is Rinji here, too?_

 _Did Chika come here willingly?_

 _Did they_ take _her?_

 _Why would she stay, then?_

 _How did she even get here?_

He was beyond confused, and Chika would definitely get a mass of inquiries directed at her, (she would probably do the same to him, though) but all Osamu wanted to see at the moment was proof she was alive and well.

He was glad Konami wasn't running, but they were still going fast enough to make his legs recall chasing after Jin when they were still in the city. She moved like she had a clear destination in mind, and still, to Osamu everything around him looked the same. When she slowed down, Osamu could see the hallway coming to an end, and stiffened as he saw several groups of people in the wider room they were headed towards.

The hallway let to a balcony overlooking the room itself, the pathway down to it wrapping around the wall until it formed a row of stairs. There were more people than Osamu thought there would be, and without being obvious he tried to hide himself behind Konami, despite her being shorter.

" _Hey, where's Chika?!_ " She shouted over the ledge, gripping the bar keeping her from falling with both hands. Osamu screamed inside his head; he wanted to avoid attracting too much attention, but Konami had already managed to single-handedly put every pair of eyes on her and Osamu.

" _That's_ your plan?" Osamu hissed at her, avoiding looking at anyone down below. "To yell her name?"

"What would _you_ do?"

"A-Ask someone, of course!"

"Well, I just asked everyone."

As every person who answered spoke at the same time, Osamu could only pick out a few clear responses, including an angry ' _shut up!'_ , to which Konami stuck her tongue out at whoever said it. Without saying a word to him she bounced towards the stairway, Osamu following closely as numerous, curious stares targeted him.

 _She's here._

 _She's really here_.

Osamu almost tripped and fell down the stairs, flailing until he grasped the guardrail and steadied himself. There was a knot in his stomach, shredding his insides from nervousness, but he maintained his cool as he mapped out possible things to say in his head.

He couldn't ignore the confused chatter that surrounded him, focusing on him, but he _acted_ like he could - it was difficult, but there were more important things to think about. Osamu didn't look around much to avoid making eye contact with anyone, but he could notice an array of colorful jackets that were similar to Jin's and Konami's, and he came to the theory that they were part of a uniform, each one slightly customized to the person's preferences. Did Chika have one? Would _he_ soon have one?

"Hey, wake up already, you'll run into someone," Konami scolded, sounding like an older sister, and Osamu had to stifle a laugh. Sliding doors were lined up on two walls parallel to each other, and couches and chairs were placed in arrangements near the center of the room, one of which Osamu stubbed his toe on. Konami stopped near a newer looking sofa, luckily in a spot where few groups were gathered, and pointed forwards while nodding to Osamu.

She didn't look as different as Osamu thought she would, and her hairstyle the exact same as it was three years ago. She was taller now, though still below average height for her age, and seemed to fit right in as she conversed with another girl wearing white.

"...Chika?"


	7. Looking Through Mirrors and Glass

**Chapter 6: Looking Through Mirrors and Through Glass**

Everything hurt.

He couldn't move, he couldn't try to, and it felt as if everything was pinned down with some magnetic force that would shock him if he tried to oppose it. The shaking wouldn't stop, and it only made the pain worse, but if he tried to end it himself it felt horrific. His head pounded, and every bone ached, and as he tried to open his eyes and observe the world around him a blinding light capped his vision.

Yuma's eyelids came back slowly, and the first thing he saw was a bright, artificial light hanging from the ceiling above him. He felt like he was atop needles, only pricking him more and more each time he dared move, so he lay completely still as the pain inhabiting every inch of his body ate away at its victim.

 _It happened again._

"Oh, you're awake?"

He thought he had been alone, and the voice instantly sent fear through his veins. Yuma could hardly turn his head without crying out, but while he strained his eyes he was able to catch sight of the speaker, crouched in the chair placed a few feet away.

He was too familiar.

"Sorry, we only just gave you pain meds so they haven't really set in yet, but we didn't want to do it earlier if it could've messed up test results." He explained himself, balancing his chin in his hand as he looked at Yuma. "You should feel a bit better soon, but you're really the only one who knows how long the recovery takes." Yuma couldn't place a name, but the sense of deja vu he got from this person's brown hair and blue jacket was unnerving.

"...Test results?" Yuma only realized he was breathing heavy after his chest slapped his nerves in protest, and he used the little energy he had to try and cover up the fear. "...What the hell did you _do_?" He sounded unintentionally angry, but the confident face talking to him had already prepared for the situation.

"You can calm down, we only took a blood sample," the man was talking to him as if they were equals, but something about his tone was unsettling. To anyone listening to him speak from the sidelines he would have sounded as if he was talking normally to a friend, but to the person he was actually directing the speech at, the underlying messages Yuma couldn't quite comprehend were only mocking him.

"Who are you?" Yuma tried to shout at him, but mid-syllable his voice gave out and returned to a raspy quietness. "And where am I?"

"The rebellion, he answered coolly, "or, to specify, Tamakoma, though I doubt you've heard of it. We're trying to help you, so no use in being defensive. But before I explain further, do you remember what happened before you woke up here?"

Yuma narrowed his eyes, shifting through the little memories he had of recent events, but many details weren't clear enough to understand. He was certain, though, that he _had_ seen this person before, somewhere in between the time in which he'd entered Mikado City and then fell unconscious.

Mikado City, that was it.

The Neighbors.

 _The paper with Yuma's information._

Steadily becoming more aware, visions of the events that had taken place beforehand slipped through to the point where Yuma began to recall them. Having infiltrated a walled city in search of answers, being discovered and then pursued by Neighbors, meeting a boy who had displayed himself as beyond strange, and finally getting himself 'rescued', if that was the accurate term, by the man that currently sat before him.

 _Yuichi Jin,_ he remembered, _his name is Jin_.

"There's no reason for me to tell you what I was doing," Yuma declared out loud, though to his disappointment Jin didn't seem swayed by his statement.

"Give me a moment to talk," he said, raising an eyebrow, "and perhaps you'll change your mind."

"It's pointless."

"Is it?" Jin laughed, but reverted back to the face he had before. "Now, if you do remember, let's start with you being curious as to how I knew your name back there."

Yuma flinched.

Jin lifted his head, folding his hands in his lap as he addressed Yuma. "As it turns out, I can safely say that I probably know things about you even you don't know yourself, and naturally I'd be more than happy to share them with you, but in exchange I'm - no, _we're_ \- looking for your cooperation."

 _'Cooperation?'_

"...Give me a legitimate reason to trust you, and maybe I'll _consider_ listening."

That was a lie. Yuma was desperate to escape somehow, though in his current state there was no chance of him getting further than the first hallway outside the door. He would pretend to comply with Jin for the time being, until he was strong enough to walk, and then bail the instant he got the chance to. There would be no _considering_ anything Jin said to him.

"I _did_ save your life, didn't I?"

Yuma gritted his teeth. "You didn't." _Without this shitty ability, you would've gotten me killed forever_.

"So that's how it is," Jin mused, eyes looking upwards for a moment before meeting Yuma's again. "You think you can't die, then?"

Yuma thought his heart would stop, a shiver traveling through skin and bones as his eyes stared, in shock, at Jin's arrogant expression. "Wait, wha- H-H-How d-do you-?"

" _'The ability activates when the host's heartbeat is no longer present',_ " Jin narrated, " _'and in the early stages said host tends to faint after de-activation'_." Unbothered by the evident terror in front of him, he never broke eye contact. "In other words, at this point you have no control over activating your ability in the first place, nor stopping it until you pass out."

Yuma felt worse than what he would've felt trapped in the swirling inner works of a ocean wave, his senses and perception of reality twisting with each word coming from Jin's mouth. What he had said first could've easily been pulled from just watching Yuma's experience in Mikado, however when Jin touched on what control Yuma had over his ability, his caution peaked. In addition, up until then Yuma was completely convinced he had been the only one with any clue about whatever was happening to him, and even then he had no logical explanation himself. When he found himself too shocked to muster a reply, Jin kept talking.

"You're not the only one with this kind of ability," Jin informed him, and Yuma simultaneously felt a weight lifted from his chest and thought he would choke on the empty air around him. "It's increasingly rare, though, and people like you are a valuable resource to whichever side they end up on. The Neighbors have probably set their sights on you, as have we, but the treatment you'd have gotten in their hands would be drastically different compared to what we've done thus far."

"H-Hold on," Yuma shook his head when he spoke, heavy with the doubt that Jin was really saying what he was saying. "You said there's more people like me, and how..." he looked down, clenching a fist, "... _how_ do you know all this? You're saying know what's going on with me?"

Since Yuma had woken up for the first time, around two weeks before the present, the same phenomenon that had occurred after being shot in Mikado had already happened to him twice before. Yuma had been able to deduce that these 'powers' of his were only activated if, as Jin had said, he was killed first, and seconds later would return from the dead. Despite having experienced it three times, the excruciating pain that came after passing out was not any less merciless with each event.

"I know a lot more than you let yourself believe I do," Jin claimed, keeping his voice at a steady level, but Yuma could sense a threatening intent beginning to build up behind it. "And of course it would be cruel to keep quiet about it, but at the same time I can't just hand everything to you and let you walk away with it.

 _Why not?_

Yuma didn't say that out loud, but he assumed Jin would pick up the thought from his agitated facial expression. He continued to remain quiet, now more out of his own intention, and tried desperately to look Jin in the eye without losing face.

"What we're offering you is help." Jin looked more sincere. "And a shield of sorts. Excluding the Neighbors, we're not the only group of people who were looking for you, and if those others had found you first I can guarantee you'd be in a lot more pain than what you're in now." Noticing Yuma's brave mask faltering again, Jin seized his opportunity. "To get to the point, we want you to lend us your strength, and in exchange I'll tell you anything you want to know about your history, and teach you a few things about that ability."

Yuma wanted to punch that confident smirk off of Jin's face, the heaviness in his limbs being the only thing that kept him from doing so. How _dare_ he withhold information and force Yuma into helping him if he wanted to get it, especially when said information had breached a highly personal level and how Jin even had it in the first place was a total mystery.

Maybe he was bluffing.

 _No_ , Yuma immediately cancelled out the idea, biting his lip. _He was way too damn accurate earlier, this guy obviously knows something._

 _...Alright, I'll play your twisted game_.

"Give me proof you can actually do what you say you can," Yuma demanded, not trusting Jin in the slightest but acting like he was coming around. He wasn't. "I'll help you when I'm certain you can help me."

"Proof?" Jin repeated, sounding clueless, and Yuma gritted his teeth at the fake innocence. "I showed you a document describing your physical traits perfectly, that's not proof enough?"

Yuma had tried to erase from his mind how much that had shaken him, but it still wasn't enough to fully convince him. "Something else."

Jin only drew the corners of his mouth upwards, while Yuma's went in the opposite direction. The former stood up, Yuma watching him the entire time to make sure he didn't attempt anything funny, and extended a hand to Yuma as he looked down at him. Any longer of a pause and Yuma would have reiterated Jin's requirement to show him a reason to trust him, but by the time he opened his mouth Jin silenced him without having to say anything nor move a muscle.

Yuma had seen this before, but only on himself. Across the skin of Jin's hand, bright green, almost white lines drew themselves along it, almost soothingly, and stretched up towards his arm - though the majority of them were covered by his sleeve. Jin didn't blink, the bastard had to have _planned_ this, and when Yuma found himself able to look at his face, Jin's eyes were nearly identical to what Yuma had seen his own appear like, with the unnaturally light pupils and outer ring over natural eye color. Green markings had already shown up on Jin's face, some minor details being different from what Yuma attained on his own skin, but it was close enough for him to instantly realize the content within the situation.

Jin had an ability almost identical to his.

Not only that, but he could activate it at will.

And he was using it to his advantage.

Jin's hand was still up, being offered to Yuma as if it were a declaration of friendship - his face, however, didn't sync with the gesture. He was still smiling, but had strayed far from the childish expression he had before. His eyes were the most unsettling, and even if they hadn't had the superhuman look they now did, a darkness Yuma was not prepared to face pierced his calm charade like shards of ice.

Yuma wasn't sure if he had taken Jin seriously at first, but if the current aura surrounding the man said one thing, Yuichi Jin was absolutely terrifying when he wanted to be.

"Welcome to Tamakoma, Yuma Kuga."

"...Chika?"

The line separating fiction and reality had become blurred to Osamu, and all he could do was flail around on it until it solidified again and he had an understanding of what was really going on. Until then, he had no idea what was real and what wasn't, and was not entirely sure that he wasn't going to wake up any minute now and realize this entire day had just been a crazy dream.

For one thing, up until minutes ago Osamu hadn't even considered the odds of seeing Chika in this particular location. Then, Konami had surprisingly introduced them to him, although even with her doing so, there was no way the likelihood of his current situation had gone up by much. It was too coincidental, and under normal circumstances Osamu would have been extremely suspicious.

There was no room left for suspicion, it seemed.

Osamu could hear people whispering to each other around him, but none of them dared approach him, so he assumed Konami was staring down anyone who tried to come close. It was more helpful than he appreciated at the time; he probably would have been a mess trying to explain his presence at the base as well as talk to Chika. Hearing Chika herself talk, however, was enough to set him off-balance on its own.

The second girl, whom Osamu was yet to know the name of, turned around and saw him first, responding to Chika's name faster than the latter herself did. Her dark blonde hair was messy but still decent, and though her eye color was nearly black, there was still the light of childish wonder Osamu wasn't certain he would see in Chika.

She looked him up and down, and Osamu was expecting her to begin listing off flaws any second. Instead, she was indeed a bit rude, but kept it to-the-point despite her obvious curiosity that stretched further than a, "Who are you?"

Osamu had no time to answer before Chika turned towards him, though she glanced at her friend first before actually setting eyes upon Osamu. While Konami was surprisingly silent, Osamu forgot to breathe when Chika appeared to recognize him, if huge eyes and a open mouth meant anything. They shared similar expressions, both minds at a standstill in the dialogue department, and the unnamed girl looked back and forth cluelessly as she tried to comprehend their relationship.

"...You-You're alive," Osamu said first, his voice raspy and breaking between words. Seeing her face was strange, not in a bad way, but in the 'you disappeared and everyone gave up looking for you because you were probably captured or dead, yet here we are' way.

Chika looked at him from a sideways angle, disbelief evident in her features. Osamu just shifted awkwardly, waiting for her to respond somehow, not wanting to say two things in a row.

The terrible thought was then introduced to him, what if Chika had _abandoned_ everyone?

 _Shit, what if she doesn't even_ want _to see me?_

That was how things looked to Osamu, through the reality-changing lens of confusion over his eyes. What if Rinji had left for that same reason, too, because he wanted to leave Mikado City behi-

"Osa...mu?"

 _What if I'm not supposed to be here?_

"Wait, you _know_ this guy?" Chika's friend still couldn't seem to focus on one of them or the other, but prodded the one she was familiar with instead. "Seriously, I'm totally missing something here, who is this?"

Nobody answered her, which led to an irritated grumble, but Chika began muttering incoherently to herself while the people around them only stared. "How...H-How did y-wh-why are... what... wh-what are you...?" She didn't sound scared or angry, (though Osamu had never heard Chika sound angry, ever) but shoulder-deep in shock.

Today was a shoulder-deep in shock kind of day.

"We - well, Jin - ran into some trouble on the scouting mission, and after getting thrown into the thick of things Osamu ended up helping." Konami's tone was trying to recreate the previous atmosphere in the room, even though the others were only half-listening to her. "He can explain all the details, but the Neighbors would've caught him if he'd stayed there."

 _'Scouting mission?'_ Osamu echoed the words in his head, a slice of his attention straying from Chika for a brief moment. _Wait, does she mean whatever their goal with Kuga was? Yeah, that's gotta be it, no way was that for scouting..._

 _Why is she lying?_

After an awkward delay, Chika looked suddenly startled, as if she had just returned from a short-lived trance. "Oh, I-I'm sorry! Sorry, this, this is just- it's _really_..." She looked around, desperately in search of the right words. "...I just... couldn't have expected..." Osamu was deathly nervous when she stopped talking, but when she held her head up and he got a good view of her face, he couldn't help a smile when he saw her _happy_.

He tried to laugh, and although it was somewhat forced the tension around them had lessened somewhat. "Yeah, I, uh, I co-"

"Chikakooo," the other girl chopped the top of Chika's head playfully, but her eyes remained on Osamu. "I'm confused, who's he?"

 _Not one for sentimental moments, I see_ , Osamu observed about this stranger, though he found her attitude amusing. She seemed nice enough, and was apparent friends with Chika.

"He, oh, h-he's- he's a friend... from awhile back..." Chika was still staring at Osamu like he was a hologram that would disappear with the press of a button. "Wait, so you're really... Oh my g- you, you're- _Osamu_?"

"What's...? Wait, so you know this guy and he just shows up at this specific base?" Chika's friend sounded partially in awe and partially suspicious, which felt like pricks to Osamu's skin. "Isn't that odd?"

"Granted," Konami laughed, "our branch only has one major base, so there's not many other places he could go."

"But he could've gone to Border, too, they're much bigger..." She was now eyeing Osamu as if he were some kind of specimen, and while she meant no harm it was easy to tell she wasn't completely trusting of him, either.

"Wait, your 'branch'?" Osamu spoke to Konami, now trying to get minor questions answered as soon as they came up, to avoid the intimidating pile of them growing any larger. "There's branches?"

 _And what does she mean by 'Border?'_

Konami bit the inside of her cheek, trying to come up with a rational way to reply. "Well, I mean, technically we were a branch at first, but now it's... I mean, I guess we've grown pretty separate from the others."

 _That only opens up a whole new level of questions, but thanks_.

"Hold on, I-I... I'll probably want to sit down, there's definitely a lot to talk about... I just, this is... I had no idea you would even..." Chika's voice was quiet, even distant, and though Osamu's body language was less obvious (or, so he thought) their reactions had similarities, but while he did have some understanding of what she was feeling he had no idea how to respond to it.

However, Osamu doubted how similar they actually were when Chika started _laughing_. Softly, and it was probably classified as a chuckle rather than a laugh, but as he scavenged for a response Chika beat him to it.

"Let me guess," she teased, "you got yourself into this trying to help one of them, didn't you?"

 _Well, I don't know if Kuga is really classified as 'one of them', but sure._

Hearing Chika talk like that was a great relief - since Konami had informed him of her presence, Osamu had a sinking feeling her personality would have been miles away from her old self, but even if it was with a fuzzy head Chika still seemed to be Chika.

 _...Wait a minute._

 _Where the hell is Kuga?_

Osamu assumed he would've been taken to whatever the rebellion's version of a hospital was, but was so occupied by other occurrences that it had completely slipped his mind to ask about the person he had watched die.

"Ooh that's almost spot on, is it a tendency of his?" Konami ruthlessly nudged him in the side, possibly an act to snap him back to the present. Osamu tried to push Kuga to back of his mind, but now that he'd remembered there was no blanking again.

 _Dammit._

"Glad to know you haven't changed much, then, at least in that area." Chika's blatant cheerfulness only lasted a second, but she remained smiling while her friend had not yet given up analyzing every aspect of Osamu's expression.

It didn't take an expert nor a long time to see that the both of them were itching to interrogate the other, on various matters, but before either could dish out the first question, a familiar voice let itself into the room and spared them the energy.

Questions would happen eventually, but there was no harm in not making things darker all of the sudden.

"Hey, Usami said Four-Eyes was somewhere around here, wh- oh, Four-Eyes!"

 _So much for making a quiet entrance in this place_.

Jin bounced over, drawing about every single head in the room when he spoke, just when Osamu had started to forget that he was being stared at from all directions. Jin paused mid-step when he saw Osamu and Chika facing each other, and Osamu wasn't sure if he knew of their knowing each other in the past, (as Konami hadn't seemed to know about it) but he at least connected the dots to tell that he had walked in on _something_.

"Oh, did I interrupt you guys...?" Jin scratched the back of his head, turning to Konami first for some sort of signal. She just sighed.

"J-Jin, you brought Osamu here?" Chika looked up at him, and when Jin looked back he raised an eyebrow.

"Wait, you know Four-Eyes?" He sounded overjoyed at that, or surprised, but to Osamu it was hard to tell. When Chika began to respond, though, Jin shook his head with a smile, dismissing his own statement. "No, no, actually, sorry to barge in like this but I've gotta borrow him for a bit, so Osamu can explain on the way."

Osamu pushed his glasses up. "We're going somewhere?"

Jin put a hand in one of the pockets along his pants, and even with his lazy appearance it was clear that his face was more serious than before. Still lighthearted, but there was definitely something on his mind. "Yeah, he said it wouldn't take long, so you should be back here relatively quickly." When Osamu still looked confused, Jin clarified his words.

"Kuga wants to see you."

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **it'll be fine, I said, you can totally update during finals week, I said, you won't be on a time crunch, I said**

 **Made it on time, though! ^^; I especially liked the first part of this chapter, with Jin and Yuma. (Yuichi Jin pls that's not how you make friends) The two of them, though a bit tricky, are really fun to write.**

 **Also, since Christmas is coming up, no chapter next week! Happy holidays!**


	8. Kuga, Yuma Kuga

_Kuga wants to see me?_

Terrible timing, to begin with, but at least Jin had made things less painfully serious in the room - he had a way of doing that - sort of, that is, until he had informed Osamu that Yuma Kuga was apparently asking for him.

"'Kuga?'" Chika said, interest going up at the unfamiliar name. "Who's that?" Her friend then complained about still not knowing exactly who _Osamu_ was, Konami reassuring her with words Osamu didn't catch.

"Oh, did Konami not tell you?" Jin answered her, looking from Osamu to Chika. "I assume you know we picked Osamu up from Mikado, but another person called Yuma Kuga was with him at the time and got himself caught, too - though he was trying to convince Osamu that helping us was stupid, so I do feel a bit bad he ended up here."

 _Jin's lying, too_.

"Is he Osamu's friend?"

Jin just shrugged when Chika asked a second question, and when he turned to Osamu his face alone was enough of an obvious signal to tell Osamu that he'd get his ass kicked if he didn't go along with the false story Jin and Konami had. Something like that, anyways.

"I don't know if I would call us 'friends'," Osamu tried to keep his voice as steady as possible, "we've only spoken a few times, but enough to consider him an acquaintance."

 _I've never met this person in my life, until today_.

He continued. "It was kind of surprising that he stopped to try and help me, though, but he's a good person at heart like that."

Osamu had to keep himself from wincing at his own words when he lied about Kuga's personality, especially when, for all he knew, Kuga could be blatantly selfish. If he turned out to be, it would then only become a matter of how quickly Osamu's lie would come to light. Jin seemed to realize this, too, and moved to keep Chika from asking him anything else about Yuma Kuga, in fear of Osamu saying something damaging.

"I'd love to hear the story behind _this_ ," Jin nodded towards Osamu and Chika, "so I'll only give Kuga a few minutes, he should be fine with that. Chika can see him, too, when he's well enough to walk."

Osamu shifted.

Chika's face then showed a mild concern, despite her not yet even knowing Kuga. "He's hurt? Or sick?"

"Yeah, he was injured," Jin admitted sheepishly. "Nothing serious, though, I see him up and moving by tomorrow."

 _Right, because dying is 'nothing serious'_.

Chika made a small noise in understanding, processing everything at once, while her friend took a step forward and nudged Jin, saying, "Right, so, uh, I hate to ask but would _you_ be able to fill me in on any of this?"

"Konami knows about as much as I do, I'm sure she'd explain everything." Jin shrugged again. "I'll send Osamu back as soon as possible, though." Chika's friend inhaled audibly, but complied with Jin's words while Konami shot him a glance.

"Did he mention why?" Osamu forced out, not being able to stand in silence in the context of the situation. "Kuga, that is."

Jin laughed nervously, patting down his hair as he considered how he should reply. "...Well, I asked, of course, but Kuga doesn't seem very... _fond_ of me at this point, so he wouldn't say a word. I'm sure it's nothing troublesome, though."

Konami unexpectedly snorted in the background, probably due to her interpreting what Jin said as Kuga somehow hating him already, but Jin showed no response to it. Instead, he gestured to Osamu with his index finger before Osamu could say something in response. "The infirmary's not that far from here, but you don't know your way around yet, so I'll show you." There was urgency in his eyes, nowhere near what Osamu had seen when they were in the city, but there was no doubting that it was there.

When Osamu looked towards her, Chika smiled and shook her head, raising a hand as well. "You should see him now if you're being asked for, I'm not going anywhere! He might be worried about you."

Chika sounded like she was tearing up, her voice exposing the hints in her expression.

Osamu felt a pang of guilt, and he felt as if he should have been teary-eyed as well.

"Osamu?" Jin coughed and said his name after an extended pause. "She's right, Kuga might be worried."

Referring to Kuga, however, Osamu highly doubted he was worried, in _any_ way, but since he had falsely (or not, if he had miraculously been right) informed Chika that Kuga was a 'good person at heart', he had to go along with it.

"I'm lucky I wasn't hurt, and if anything _I_ should be worried about _him_ ," Osamu admitted, speaking the truth. Now that Kuga had been brought up again, Osamu realized he was, indeed, somewhat worried about him - though worry, in that situation, was only curiosity wearing a cheap disguise to make itself seem 'right', but even Osamu himself failed to see past it. It was ultimately for the better.

It was... odd, to say the least, leaving that kind of atmosphere so suddenly, but luckily nobody commented on it. Chika encouraged him to go once more, which Osamu had heavily contrasting feelings about, but before he could speak up Jin announced farewells for the both of them and then dragged - by the arm, yes - Osamu towards the nearest corridor, ignoring the sea of confused expressions that parted before him.

"H-Hey, hold on a second! Jin!" Osamu tugged at his arm, tripping over his feet when he found himself off-balance. Jin had been moving at the pace of a hurried walk, and only when the two of them had turned a corner and were safely out of view of most people did he stop and let go.

It didn't hurt, but Osamu rubbed his lower arm anyways. "Jeez, that was kinda sudden," he muttered, but his annoyance ebbed and was replaced with more thoughtful emotions after a few seconds. "Wait, so is... is Kuga okay?"

He felt terrible for having left Chika so he could talk with a person she didn't even know, and _he_ hardly even knew, but hopefully Jin had some authority within the rebellion ranks and thus his orders wouldn't be questioned - what did he say he was? Squad leader, that had to be something.

"Physically?" Jin turned and began walking down the hallway while he spoke, and Osamu followed. "Yeah, he'll be fine. He'll probably be weaker than he usually would be for a few days, but you shouldn't be concerned."

 _Is he not okay_ emotionally _, then? Why did Jin specify?_ Osamu didn't ask, for there were other things on his mind, and he knew he would probably see a glimpse of Kuga's emotional state for himself when he saw him.

Silence fell on them for an uncertain amount of time, one that couldn't have been long, but Jin became suspicious of an Osamu that knew so little not interrogating him the first chance he got.

"Four-Eyes? You alright?" He talked over his shoulder and surprised Osamu, who had been attempting to quietly sort out his thoughts.

"What? O-Oh, yeah, I'm fine."

Jin didn't buy it. "There's something on your mind?"

He said it as a question, but Osamu knew it was more of a statement. Tapping his fingers together nervously, he didn't try to argue and instead found one of the more recent questions he'd made a mental note to ask, and brought it forward.

"...Why did you lie?"

"What?"

"You lied," Osamu reaffirmed, frowning. "You and Konami did, about Kuga. Konami said you were on a _scouting mission_ , and now Kuga was apparently trying to talk me out of helping you, which I wasn't even doing in the first place?"

Jin's face became empty for a moment, but Osamu was certain he saw something flash across his eyes for an even shorter instance - something that reminded him of regret, even sorrow, emotions that only deepened the hole of confusion Osamu had not dug for himself, but had been tossed into before _then_ starting to dig on his own.

"I'm sure you already know this, but Kuga's case is... special. _Extraordinarily_ special, just like he is. But with that kind of power, you get..." Jin stopped to think. "...You get a lot of people wanting that power. People that will do whatever they need to do in order to get it. Only a select few people in this base know why we went to Mikado in the first place, and why we brought Kuga here, and that's to protect them."

Osamu narrowed his eyes, heartbeat beginning to dash. "To protect them?"

Jin nodded grimly. "Like I said, there are people after Kuga, and those people won't hesitate to torture anyone they believe may know something. And if the majority of our own don't know about the truth behind Kuga, there's a smaller chance of them getting captured because of him." He sighed, and a feeling touched his features that Osamu couldn't quite decipher. "If they do end up in that situation, if they don't know anything they can't say anything, and the information remains protected no matter what lengths their captors go to."

Osamu knew his complexion had paled, and all he was able to do was stare at Jin while his face began to sweat. Something was telling him that whoever Jin was talking about when he said 'people after Kuga' weren't the Neighbor forces, if they were he could have easily just said so.

And that meant one thing: the rebels had other enemies outside the walls - _human_ enemies.

"Just who..." Osamu took a deep breath before continuing, struggling to regain his composure. "...Who _is_ he?"

Jin knew he was referring to Kuga - saying the boy's name wasn't necessary. "I'm not permitted to say much about him, but Yuma Kuga's a person with the ability to single-handedly shift the tide of a war, if that tells you anything."

Osamu stopped asking questions after that.

Jin didn't dare break the silence that fell between them as they continued to where Kuga was being held, and the entire way there Osamu was desperately trying to chase away questions he wasn't sure he could handle the answers to. Just as with him meeting Chika again, he decided he would find answers eventually, but when that time came he would hopefully be ready to hear them.

Osamu couldn't shake the eerie feeling he had gotten after Jin's little revelation, even when the man looked to him again with that repetitive smile plastered on his face. He either wasn't bothered at all or was simply better at hiding it.

"Do you want me to wait out here?" Jin asked, before reaching for an icon that Osamu assumed would open the door in front of them. The door Kuga was seemingly behind. "Or can you find your way back to the others on your own?"

"I think I'll be fine," Osamu replied, even though he wasn't entirely sure. Jin probably had other matters to attend to, and even if he didn't Osamu knew he wouldn't fare well in another silent walk, no matter how short it would be.

Jin acknowledged him, then opened the door with a touch of his hand and briefly glanced at whatever - no, _whoever_ \- was inside with a cheerful expression. Waving to Osamu, he continued down the hallway they had been going down before disappearing around the second nearest bend, without another word.

Osamu bit his lip, cautiously taking a step and sticking his head out so he could see inside. The lights were on but seemed to be lacking in power, one of them flickering periodically, and various medical supplies were placed openly on tables and counters, more of them probably being stored in the white cabinets stacked on sections of the back wall. Stretchers and cots were lined up horizontally in front of them, all but one empty.

Yuma Kuga.

It was hard to decide whether he looked better or worse than before, but the room's pitiful lighting certainly wasn't helping anything. For one thing, he was _breathing_ , and his face and limbs had gone back to normal, void of any strange green markings, but despite that he looked incredibly sickly.

It didn't take a doctor to see that he was in pain.

"...Osamu?" Kuga addressed his guest first, and Osamu felt incredibly embarrassed when he realized his head was still poking through the doorway like an ostrich. Awkwardly shuffling the rest of his body in the room, he moved forward slowly but jumped when the door closed behind him without warning. After Kuga's voice ceased to fill the air, the only sound was the faint hum of an air conditioner and Osamu's pants shifting as he walked a few steps towards him, before sitting down in a chair positioned no less than a foot away.

He figured Kuga was waiting for him to say something, based off of the expectant look in his eye, and Osamu forced his shoulders to perk up while he pushed his glasses further along the bridge of his nose. "Y-You asked for me?"

"I did," Kuga muttered, sounding as distant as he had when Osamu had spoken to him for the first time, back in Mikado.

Osamu straightened his back. "Why?"

"I...I'll be straightforward, I guess: what do you know?"

"E-Excuse me?"

"Tell me everything you know," Kuga repeated, face deadpan. "I don't care if you think it's trivial, if you know anything about Jin or whatever this place is, tell me."

Osamu had a delayed reaction, but his first thought was that Kuga came off as rather rude. 'Upfront' was probably the better word, or perhaps he just wasn't aware of how his words sounded, but that didn't change much. "Wait, what? Why?"

Kuga didn't reply.

Osamu sighed, recognizing that Kuga would probably refuse to answer any questions until Osamu coughed up answers of his own, but he was hardly sorry to say that he didn't have much to offer in the first place. He still decided to go along with it, though.

"I doubt I know much more, if even that, than you do," Osamu began, and it was hard to judge from Kuga's almost blank expression whether or not he was pleased with the first few words of Osamu's response. "But I do know this is a base affiliated with the rebel organization, and there's a number of people here." He was conflicted over doing it, but he decided to leave out most of the bits about Jin and Konami lying about Kuga's situation, as well as other strange details that were yet to leave his head alone.. "They - These guys, some of them, seemed to be after you for some reason, and I... I can guess wh-"

"Don't," Kuga stopped him the instant he understood where Osamu was headed with the thought. Emotion tainted his face for a heartbeat, gone quick enough so Osamu couldn't understand it but there long enough so he was able to see it's presence. It reminded him of Jin.

 _Sorry about this_.

"What happened in the city, what _was_ that?" Osamu felt guilty for tapping at what Kuga didn't want to discuss, despite going through with it anyways, and he turned the tables and snatched his own opportunity to ask the questions. "Y-You... You _died_. And the lines on your face, and your eyes, and you could shoot-"

"If you want to hear about this damn curse, ask _Jin_." Kuga cut him off again, his voice staying strangely calm despite the content of his words. "He claims he knows all there is to know about it, yet here I am, completely in the dark about my own situation."

Osamu stared at him. "...Wait a minute, _you_ don't know what's going on? You're not telling me that you can't explain what happened to _your_ body and what _you_ did in Mikado, are you?"

"If I did, I guarantee I wouldn't have ended up in this place."

"And Jin, he won't...?"

"He's using me, I know it." Kuga's glare was small but had feeling, staring down at the pale sheet covering his legs. "And I've no choice but to go straight where he wants me to." He looked up at Osamu with dark eyes, but apart from that an expression was nearly nonexistent. "You're probably the same, too - a disposable pawn that somehow fits into this mess."

When Osamu tried to speak, Kuga shook his head to shush him before continuing himself, carefully keeping his voice void of any strong emotion. "Before you say something else, I _never_ agreed to answering questions. Sneaky move, I'll give you that, but not enough." He angled his neck so his head was then facing upwards, dreary gaze straying over the ceiling tiles. "I can already tell this was in vain, though. Seems Jin wasn't lying about you."

"...Er, what did he say?"

"That it would be useless to prod you for information." Kuga returned to looking at Osamu. "Wasn't going to stop me from trying, though, I'll take whatever I can get."

Osamu had no idea what to say, but he was confused by the opinion Kuga most likely had about Jin (despite Jin having already said Kuga didn't seem to particularly like him), shown through little things apart from obvious dialogue, such as the weight of his voice and usage of phrases like 'Jin _wasn't_ lying'. "I do have to say, I don't... I don't think Jin's a bad person, if that's what you believe - he doesn't give me that kind of feeling. I wouldn't argue if you said some of his methods were... _questionable_ , or a little harsh, but I think his intentions are what he believes to be for the best. Give him a chance to explain everything, and things might change."

He saw Kuga's expression shift, and much to Osamu's surprise, the faint beginning of a smile stretched his lips. "Well, aren't you odd?"

"Wh-? What do you mean by that?"

"Even though what I've said probably changed how you look at that guy, you still insist he has justifiable intentions." Kuga shook his head again. "I envy it. And oh, that reminds me," he added, "the second reason I asked for you."

The smile was gone now, and in it's place was honest _confusion_. "...Why did you help me?"

He had to be talking about what happened in Mikado, there was no other event _to_ talk about. "Helping you when I saw you wounded?" Osamu clarified. "Well, of course I didn't know about the whole, uh... the whole _thing_ I ended up getting myself into, but you were obviously hurt badly and I - I couldn't leave you, that decision would never leave _me_ if I did."

"Strange..." Osamu couldn't decide if Kuga was talking to him or to himself, but it could go either way. "I assumed as much. But, I mean," he pouted suddenly, "you knew you could get badly hurt yourself, didn't you? And you almost _did -_ you must've regretted helping me when you thought you were caught, right?"

"I regretted that I never ended up helping you like I wanted to," Osamu confessed, finding himself laughing at his own actions. "But I never thought anything like, 'trying to help this person was a mistake,' it didn't even come to mind at the time. Even now, I think it was the right thing to do."

Kuga observed him with eyebrows angled, as he tried to understand the reasoning belonging to the person before him. Though Osamu, as well, found it just as difficult to understand Kuga's point of view, but he was at least able to get a vague idea of where he seemed to be coming from.

Osamu had to force his mouth shut when it looked like Kuga wasn't going to talk again right away, not wanting to hurt the foundation any future interactions between them would be built on with deep questions. Kuga was in a fragile state as it was, and the present then was clearly an inadequate time for interrogations, even more so with him being the one subjected to questions - though Osamu wasn't exactly in ideal shape either.

However, he did follow up with a question, but hopefully one that would leave benefits outweighing any harm.

"What's your name?"

Kuga frowned, then opened and closed his mouth a few times as he tried to make sense of the person in front of him. "You... don't already know my name?"

"I know your name," Osamu assured him, "but you never introduced yourself."

After a few empty seconds Osamu was afraid he had upset him somehow, as Kuga failed to find words in a timely manner, still acting like he was about to speak but then remaining quiet multiple times. Osamu feared starting to talk and interrupting Kuga if he did eventually speak, so there was a one-sided wait, but the silent room returned to life in a way better than what he could have expected.

Kuga's response was a tiny ' _pfft_ ' noise - he was trying not to laugh.

"Is that right?" He was on the edge of an actual giggle, and for the first time, his actions reflected his already childish face. "You really are weird."

Despite his words, Kuga offered Osamu his hand, though he tensed in pain with the small movement. "It's Kuga," he told Osamu, fighting laughter again, and when he did his face was kinder than before. "Yuma Kuga."

Osamu smiled back, shaking Yuma's small, colder hand with his own as he put his questions aside for just a moment, and allowed himself to supposedly 'meet' Kuga for the first time.

"Mikumo, Osamu Mikumo."

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **I'm sure most people have already figured out who the other group outside the walls is, and I think that especially since this is from Osamu's point of view, right now they seem a lot more antagonistic than they actually are. After all, poor Osamu doesn't have much information to base an opinion off of, so he probably thinks they're scary people. I can't wait for him to meet Tachikawa.**

 **Also, happy 2017! Since I'm picking up different classes this semester with a seemingly heavier workload, I've been considering switching the posting schedule to biweekly instead of weekly, depending on how things go, so I'll provide updates on that! ^^**


	9. Where the Timer Starts Ticking

"Mm? A deal?"

Jin was alone, leaning over the edge of a rooftop as a cold wind perpetually rustled his clothes and hair. The stars were already visible, and as he held a phone to the side of his face he stared out at the vast sea of sky dotted thickly with bright lights, undisturbed by humans.

" _Keep in mind this wasn't_ my _proposition_ ", the voice on the other end said firmly, " _but the higher-ups are willing to arrange something_."

Jin's eyebrows curved in interest. "I hadn't been expecting Commander Kido to put something like that forward just yet, especially considering the circumstances, so _do_ tell."

" _First off, we know your people found him._ "

"Geez, already?" Jin sighed. "Lucky we did, then, if you guys were tracking us that closely." He could hear a grumble coming from the speaker while waiting for a reply. It was only 'lucky' for Jin and his allies, while the exact opposite case for the person he was speaking to.

"... _I'd also like to note that while the objective here is to avoid fighting, if you refuse to comply we aren't going to hesitate in attacking again._ "

"I understand that, go on."

" _As you were likely to expect, your part in this would be handing the Trion kid over-_ "

Jin's muscles stiffened.

"- _In exchange, however, we'll implement an extended ceasefire, and in addition to that send an appropriate number of reinforcements to Tamakoma's base_."

"You doubt our abilities to defend ourselves?" Jin laughed after speaking, though his voice was serious then.

" _You're considerably smaller than but half of our main force, and if I were to speak in terms other than numbers, even if you added the Trion kid's strength, Tamakoma is still weaker - by a large margin. If the Neighbors find a single vital spot, the entire branch is finished. There's no denying you need support_."

"Harsh as always, I see."

" _He'll be made better use of in our hands, whether you like to accept it or not. Unlike Tamakoma, we're still intent on winning this war._ "

"...He _does_ have a name."

" _Don't change the subject, that's irrelevant_."

"And that's the problem." Jin took his elbow from the ledge and stood up straight, resting his free hand in his pocket. " _Yuma's_ not a weapon to be used at your disposal. Even Commander Kido knows that."

" _It's not about things like that, Jin. This is strategy_ -"

"Strategy in which one person is stripped of whatever humanity they have left, now."

The voice scoffed. " _Don't talk as if you haven't puppeted him already, I'm aware of how you do things_."

"I can't say I haven't," Jin agreed, somewhat guilt-ridden. "Frankly, he probably loathes me at this point, and I'd be lying if I said I hadn't done some of the things I'm calling you out for doing, but even if he can't see it right now I'm leading him this way because I'd like to let him enjoy whatever life he has left. And I know you wouldn't let him do that."

" _One person's happiness means nothing if it means a victory for the entire human race._ "

"Though appreciated, I decline your offer," Jin decided, already having had his answer in mind from the moment he got the call. "I do apologize for letting you go to all the trouble of contacting me privately, but Tamakoma doesn't work that way."

" _You're making a mistake_."

"No, I can't say I am."

" _P-Put me through to one of the directors - are you saying you'd rather be wiped out than make an agreement?_ "

"Try as you like, but they'll give you the same answer." Jin stayed quiet for a moment, while the edges of his mouth curled into a smile. "And you sound mistaken yourself, Ninomiya." He chuckled through the speaker, his gaze locked on the sky as it had been. "It's a shame you underestimate us. Allow me to say, if either group is going to be in need of reinforcements, it's undoubtedly Border."

Ninomiya was clearly agitated, showing through his thin attempt to mask it in his voice. " _You do realize what this means?_ "

"If you want a fight under the Neighbors' noses, so be it. But you'll be the ones suffering from it."

"... _I'll say it again, you're making a mistake_."

"You insist on fighting a battle you're incapable of winning." Jin leaned his head back to take in more of the starry expanse above him. "Especially now, the entirety of Border will become a target if you tread carelessly."

" _Division now will ultimately hurt Tamakoma more_."

"Ah, you're wrong again," Jin said, his voice mockingly bright. "Look at the situation past what you can see at a glance, and there's entire pages unfolding if you would stop to read them. Of course, our ideal is having you as allies, but for that to happen there's going to have to be a gray zone, one that's currently yet to exist." When Ninomiya refused to respond verbally, Jin went on. "The amount of changes in the near future is immeasurable, thus we manipulate them - you can fight, you can have as many people as you wish, but whoever ends up holding the most strings is the stronger force."

" _Don't state the ob_ -"

"I'm not saying you don't already know all of that, but it's not something I'd allow over my head."

" _I don't know what you're trying to by dragging this out, but unless you let me talk to a director the chance for negotiation is gone. There's nothing left to discuss_."

Jin heard him shuffling to hang up, and before he could say anything to stop him, Ninomiya claimed the final word and dismissed him without room for argument.

" _Whatever happens, remember that_ you _brought this on_."

And his voice was gone.

There were only so many people in Japan, Konami had said, apparently so little a number that the chances of meeting lost friends was fairly high.

Or, they actually weren't, at all, which was the truth that had introduced itself in a way that was hard to swallow - yes, the chances were indeed incredibly low, but somehow one future managed to slip through nearly impossible odds, thus making it all the more hard to believe.

Chika had only doubted that he _wouldn't_ die early at first, but eventually came to decide that it would be difficult for even Osamu Mikumo to get himself killed in the walls, _especially_ if his mother had anything to do about it. Chika did, however, commonly fear of him getting himself into trouble at some point. Osamu had always been the type to do whatever it was he thought was 'the right thing', often putting his own safety to the side in order to accomplish that, and Chika could recall herself and Osamu's mother laughing and saying things like, ' _that boy, one of these days he's going to get himself into the worst of situations!_ ' It had been said jokingly, of course, but the both of them always knew that if there was no one there to stop him, Osamu would, easily, get himself into the absolute worst of situations.

And this was one of those occurrences, according to Konami, in which Osamu had apparently attempted to help complete strangers, and in doing so got himself tangled up in the mess that was Japan's rebellion. Chika couldn't say that this was necessarily an unfortunate turnout, in fact possibly the total opposite, but she was yet to hear exactly what had happened, and after hearing about the person named Yuma Kuga being injured she didn't have much reason to believe Osamu thought the experience was generally 'good'.

To get to the point, she never thought she would see anyone from Mikado ever again, yet mere minutes ago, she had seen Osamu Mikumo as living proof that he had found his way to Tamakoma anyways.

And Chika Amatori didn't know _what_ to think.

"S-So... how did... how did he come across you?" Chika, trying to organize her head even if only a little bit, asked Konami, whom Jin had said could explain everything that he could. "Those missions are supposed to be secret, so did something go wrong?"

Konami sighed. "Keep in mind that it definitely could've gone worse, but we did make some, so to say, mis...mistakes. I mean, it was Jin, really! He got headstrong and thought he could take it easy, but ended up being questioned for 'suspicious behavior', something about getting caught in an unauthorized area. So careless."

"That sounds like something Konami would do, too..." Izuho, the friend standing next to her, whispered in Chika's ear, getting both of them an annoyed glare from a Konami who wasn't supposed to hear that statement. Chika secretly agreed with her, and was uncertain whether or not Konami had twisted one or more aspects of what had actually happened, but she wouldn't dare say it out loud.

"Well, Konami was the one suggested entering that area."

"She also started a fight once she was in there."

Karasuma and Reiji, in that order, subtly supported Izuho's observation while Konami herself struggled to come up with some kind of witty counterattack. "J-Jin pointed it out first!"

Karasuma, now next to Izuho with Reiji a few steps behind him, raised his index finger in the know-it-all way that Chika _knew_ made Konami livid. "He did, but _you_ insisted on tailing the Neighbor, then proceeding to actually get caught. For 'suspicious behavior'."

As Konami erupted into a flurry of waving hands and streams of peeved yelling, Izuho kept at her asking for any kind of information, though the likelihood of Konami actually explaining everything from start to finish had just gone down a great amount. Karasuma was no help to this.

Reiji, sighing but not telling Konami to quiet down as he usually would, continued where the girl had left off, probably having heard a small bit of their conversation before approaching them. "Jin was the one who noticed this in the first place, as Konami's already said - he caught sight of a Neighbor guard apparently dressed as a higher rank than the typical city guard, and Konami met up with him a few minutes later, so she suggested they follow him and try and find out what what looked like a decently ranked official was doing there." In between sentences, he took a pause and put a finger to his right temple. "Personally, I was skeptical, but Jin seemed confident enough. As you've probably established, they weren't particularly cautious - Konami wasn't, that is. She got spotted by a patrol soldier running late, and thinking she was on some kind of time crunch, _this_ one," Reiji pointed his thumb towards Konami, "claimed she had to 'seize the opportunity' and left Jin to deal with the other soldier."

"You're making it sound like a bad idea!" Konami complained, giving up on the fight against Karasuma that only one side acknowledged.

"It _was_."

"Of course I had to go after the suspicious one right then, there was no way to track him or anything." With her arms crossed, she sounded quite confident in her choices.

"You attacked him way too early," Karasuma chimed in.

"So? We'd already been seen, a fight would've happened before getting out of the city, that was already certain."

"The point is that the commotion attracted way too much attention," Reiji rephrased, Karasuma nodding in agreement. "It'll be harder to go back now."

"We don't need to go back," Konami muttered her reply. Raising the volume of her voice to what was only slightly above her normal level, she added, "I attacked him, sure, but Jin took care of the patrol guard and the one accompanying the Neighbor I was already fighting. With the both of us, it was easy work beating him, and in the end there's no way you can scold me for it just _looking_ at what we got out of him."

Chika had several other questions, but she first repeated the last bit of what Konami had said. "' _Got out of him?_ ' What do you mean by that, like, information?"

Konami beamed, no longer trying to defend her actions and instead seeming more proud of them. What resulted from them, more accurately. "Important information, at that. Information that we probably wouldn't have gotten if I hadn't ' _attacked him too early_ '. Jin should be reporting it to the higher-ups right now."

"Are you allowed to tell us what it is?" Izuho finally spoke up again, voicing what Chika would've also asked in a couple seconds time.

When Konami looked at Reiji for some kind of clearance, he only shrugged minimally, but that didn't seem like it let her down at all. "I'll probably know how much I can say by tomorrow, but," she held excited fists in front of her torso, nodding to no one specifically, "it's covering Trion, more along the lines Jin's case. Not _him_ , necessarily, but what _happened_ to him, and it happening to other people."

 _Jin?_

"Wh-What? Really?" _That_ was unexpected; Chika had known about Jin for some while but he always seemed to be a person with tightly packed secrets, some that, at least as he claimed, even he didn't know. Despite Chika being forbidden from accessing certain levels of information that people like Konami, Karasuma, and Reiji had, Jin was a vital combat asset so there was no hiding his raw abilities, but the explanations behind them, however, were cloaked to just about everyone.

"The guy had some kind of chip-like Neighbor tech on him," Karasuma mentioned, "one of those tiny things that projects holograms for a monitor, and it was easy to get into it using his identification. Of course there's layers upon layers of stuff behind what we could glance at, but we'll work on getting everything we can."

Izuho didn't respond with words but instead murmured out a long, awestruck sound, even though she knew even less than Chika did about this subject.

'Trion', if Chika remembered correctly, was what ran through Neighbors' viens alongside blood, drastically increasing their physical strength as a side effect. Most people in Tamakoma knew that much, mainly because it was impossible for a normal human to even hold a candle against any Neighbor in a fist fight, and thus it was necessary to prepare adequate means of countering it.

The Neighbors had figured this out long before any human did, but somewhere along the line they began extracting Trion to use it for various attacks and defence, materializing it into weapons of all sorts. Following a brutal period of overwhelming losses on humanity's end, the human race eventually managed to reverse-engineer the Neighbors' Trion technology and, for once, had a chance at victories as time went on. Trion-based weapons were an absolute must when fighting any Neighbor, normal offences usually not doing any notable damage, and soon after discovering it the rebel group went off on their own road of developing this technology.

"Is it what... what they... what they do with..." Chika thought over each word, biting her lip when she reached a blank slate with no ideas as to how she should phrase her curiosity. Especially around the lower-ranked Izuho, she had to be careful with what she said and how she said it, to avoid letting something mistakenly slip.

"With people?" Konami finished the question, her squadmates both immediately glancing her way warily, giving Chika the idea that the young woman probably shouldn't have been so straightforward. What was said was said, though, and the same information would have been conveyed at some point, but as Izuho's guesses started flying her face sunk into realization.

"P-P-People?" She looked at Konami, then Chika, putting 'people' and 'Trion' (rather, Trion research) together in an unsettling sum.

"You've seen Jin fight, which is a prime example of what Konami meant," Karasuma stopped her before Izuho said anything else. "Basically that, as in, the science responsible for it, so we might be able to figure it out."

"Whoa! For real?" Izuho's disturbed mood was left in the dust, either that or she uncharastically hid it . Like most people who only had information about Jin from seeing his physical appearance, she, too, was interested in the facts that had been kept from everyone.

"Yeah," Karasuma confirmed with a nod. "Sorry we can't tell you any more, but that's the general gist of it."

"To speak of someone other than Jin, since there's not much more we can talk about with him, Osamu's what started this conversation, wasn't he?" Konami suddenly shifted the direction of their exchanges, stealing Chika's attention and putting it back over Osamu's unexpected appearance. "Sorry to change subjects, but since he's already seen Jin he's stuck here, and I've gotta wonder why you never mentioned him. You've talked about your family, but now that I think about it I can hardly remember anything about friends."

"A-Ah, right, I guess he never came up..." Chika somehow found herself laughing, nervously, but nonetheless laughing. "Well, I mean, I'm sure there were plenty of opportunities to mention him, but I never really..." She looked down at her shoes. "I-I didn't want to... _involve_ anyone else, I guess. I didn't want to risk anyone getting hurt, especially with what's been going on lately..."

"When you consider that, not mentioning names is understandable," Reiji concurred. "Don't feel bad about it."

"Yeah..." Chika's fingers pulled at her sleeves. "Yeah, thank you." She brightened up, the worry that people would scold her for keeping her old friends' identities secret beginning to be lifted.

"Now that he's here, though..." Izuho got that weird smile on her face, the smile she usually got when she was up to something mischievous, though in other occurrences such as this one, she was more along the lines of wanting any interesting information she could get her hands on. ('Interesting' not being things like Neighbors or Yuichi Jin's general existence, but smaller, more childish topics.) "What was he like, how close were you? Wait-Wait oh my _God_ , were you two a-"

Izuho's laughing at her own words brought her unfinished sentence to an early end, while Chika disproved her frantically as Konami, Karasuma, and even Reiji looked at the cackling blonde in interest. Chika was unexpectedly glad Osamu wasn't here at the moment.

"Nooo _, no no no no no_ ," Chika's face was bright red, and she froze when Konami laughed at how quickly she'd denied it. "Wait, I-I-I'm not saying he's a bad person or anything, b-but we're _definitely_ not like that!"

Izuho started to say something, probably jokingly, but Reiji lightly chopped her on the head before a complete word left her mouth. After quelling her giggles, or trying to, she spoke again. "Right, right, sorry, I guess there would've been some kind of tearful reunion or somethin' if that was the case."

Chika knew her friend's comment was with cheerful intentions, but she couldn't help but flinch when she heard it. She and Osamu had only ever been friends, but they'd practically grown up together, since Rinji started tutoring him back in early grade school - that alone, in Chika's eyes, was enough to call for a 'tearful reunion'.

So where was it?

"Uh, my brother tutored him," Chika started talking when she noticed the others were waiting for her to do so. "That's how we met. He was at our house a lot, so we just started speaking to each other at some point."

"Ah, childhood friends," Konami announced the obvious, "it must be nice to see him after all this time, isn't it?"

Chika nodded, unsure herself whether she was pretending to be happier than she was or not. "It really is, just... surprising, that's all! I think it's still setting in, but it's a miracle he showed up here."

"Oh, definitely."

'It was just setting in', that had to be it. Not to mention that Osamu had only been in front of her for a matter of minutes, so it _had_ to be her still struggling to comprehend the situation. Chika knew it had happened, but in perfect unison she didn't - 'it was just setting in'. She felt immensely guilty for the lack of tears she'd shed, the lack of amazed conversation exchanged between the two of them, but it would happen, she told herself. Give it time to set in.

So she awaited his return, from whoever Jin had taken him off to speak with - Kuga, something. She wondered how he was taking it, was Osamu feeling similar? He'd had no idea she was here, after all, just as she was completely unprepared to see him come back with the special operations squad. It was definitely that kind of shock taking effect on the both of them, _that_ was it. Chika would go on to ask Reiji, or Konami again, about the events that had taken place within Mikado City, and laugh because everything Osamu did was just like him, from the time before she'd left, and soon they would talk to each other again just like they did years before.

It just needed to set in.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Aaaahhh I'm so sorry for updating late this week, things have been SUPER busy and I barely managed time to write! ;-; I mentioned last week that I may have to switch to a biweekly schedule, (or scheduled breaks, if you'd call it that) and for the time being that'll be in place until things slow down again. I'll try to get back on the usual schedule as soon as possible, thank you for bearing with me!**


	10. Curiosity Goes Hand-in-Hand With Glasses

Yuma Kuga was weird.

As in, not the kind of weird that was uncomfortable or even disturbing, but the kind of weird that made it nearly impossible to understand him. The kind of weird that made Osamu second-guess most of the things he'd been told about his situation, and the kind of weird that led Kuga himself to change moods like a slideshow in a minute flat. He was the kind of weird that made Osamu look at him and think, ' _Who in the everliving hell_ is _this kid?_ '

In all Kuga's strangeness, however, Osamu hoped they could get along. It had seemed unlikely at first, but given a few minutes after serious questions ceased and Jin was left out of the conversation, Kuga talked like Osamu would expect someone his age to talk, (How old _was_ he, anyway? Ten?) even laughing occasionally, and they could speak to each other almost as if the both of them had somehow forgotten what was going on in the outside world.

And after what seemed like too short of a time, Jin had taken the responsibility to remind them.

He knocked before entering, but didn't wait for Osamu or Yuma to ask who was at the door before opening it without warning. Jin looked unexplainably out of sorts, though it would have been much harder to notice if he hadn't appeared so rushed coming into the room, and because of that the look in his eye and a few hairs out of place on his usually well-combed head seemed to stand out quite a bit more.

"Sorry for barging in," he had said, "but I've gotta borrow Yuma again - change of plans!" Yuma narrowed his eyes at the request, or statement, but Jin was talking fast. "You both don't mind, right?"

Osamu answered before Kuga could, fearing some kind of rude remark from him, even though he doubted Jin would leave them be even if one of them had said they _did_ mind. "W-Wh-yeah, yeah of course! If it's urgent, _i-important_ actually," he eyed Kuga, "definitely, of course."

"What do you want?" Kuga crushed Osamu's hope of leaving a casual atmosphere behind him, but Jin only straightened up.

He laid eyes on Osamu first, before saying anything else, and delivered a silent signal that it would be the appropriate time for him to leave. Osamu, flashing an apologetic glance at Kuga, had then muttered a hasty goodbye and ungracefully stumbled towards the door, Jin watching him the entire time. He wasn't sure if Kuga saw him wave before the door closed and Jin's voice spoke again, almost muted from Osamu's place in the empty passageway.

He stood there for a few minutes, maybe longer, though spent no effort trying to understand what was being said behind the metal barrier between him and Kuga's room - it was pointless, anyways, the only sounds that came through being muffled syllables Osamu couldn't fit together to hear proper words.

Now, he was still in the labyrinth of identical hallways, but had left the one Kuga's room branched from and was walking sluggishly through a confined space of pale, metallic colors. He might have been lost, might have not been, but that was beyond his thoughts at the time.

Osamu was in a constant state of wishing he could write things out, wishing there was some sort of _plan_ so he knew exactly what to do. Not to convey the wrong idea, though; Osamu had always been one to run headfirst into situations without fully thinking them through, often only considering his actions for no more than five seconds, but there were times in his life in which even he longed for some sort of guide to follow, this being one of them.

The inner conversation between impulsive Osamu and rational Osamu was exhausting to begin with, with more and more names, outcomes, and questions flooding his head with each passing tick of the clocks mounted on every few walls. Chika's residence in the base, first and foremost, was shocking enough, and Osamu's nervous stomach did cartwheels as he tried to determine what would be the best way to approach her. Asking why she'd left Mikado City in the first place? At some point, of course, but right off the bat? Absolutely not.

There was his mother, Kasumi, a looming presence in Osamu's mind from the moment the Neighbor guard had caught him trying to help Kuga. At the very least, she knew that he hadn't been killed _inside_ the city, but especially with her knowing no more about the outside than Osamu did prior to his departure, he was already certain she was terrified. For all she knew, her only son was already dead, and Osamu was desperate to find some way to contact her without giving the Neighbors his location. He wanted - no, he _needed_ \- to tell her, somehow, that he was alive, and somewhat safe, that he had survived his 'escape' and would do everything he could to see her again.

Then, Kuga. Kuga, the boy with a head of snow and sapphire eyes that could probably stare into your soul and past it. The boy that had been shot dead, then revived like it had happened before. The boy with the unexplainable green lines stretching across pale skin and even within the color of his eyes, the boy that could manifest power from thin air and use it to kill. The boy Osamu was nonetheless incredibly curious about, but there was no predicting whether or not that curiosity would be for the better. Curiosity had killed the cat, after all, and then the Four-Eyes.

Osamu bit his lip, wanting to curse himself for not making the most of the opportunity he'd had to ask Kuga questions, but he found himself unable to. It obviously pained Kuga to talk about it as much as it was hard - or awkward - for Osamu to ask about it, (at least when he was thinking straight, that is) so for the time being Osamu restrained himself from doing so. He knew it was a dirty thing to do, but if Kuga was right about what Jin supposedly knew, _he_ could tell Osamu about the rebellion's strange recruit. Osamu hoped he wouldn't have to ask Jin, but alongside that he also hoped that, one day, Kuga would open up because of his own will.

Osamu paused.

'One day'.

'One day' was a phrase used when talking about the future, a phrase that made Osamu's heart pound in his chest.

'One day' meant that _his_ future would stretch out here.

He had tried to force himself not to think about it, but it was always inevitable - of _course_ he was glad Jin and the others saved him, as well as Kuga, but there was no telling how long he would be away from home. Somewhere deep in the part of his brain that was actually making sense, or thought it was, Osamu felt chained by the nagging fear whispering in his ear, mocking him, telling him that he would never go back. And if he did, there was no chance of him being able to live a normal life again, no chance of picking up where he left off. Osamu Mikumo was branded a fugitive, the label snatching away any chance at living as he used to in Mikado City, a life he had taken for granted.

For years, Osamu had wished for some kind of freedom, but when it was finally given to him it was a bittersweet feeling in which one emotion outweighed the other.

He shook his head, nobody else being around to see him, dark tips of hair brushing above the rims of his glasses. What was he thinking about in the first place, again? Chika, Chika was the priority. Osamu promised to ask Jin about means of contacting his mother as soon as he got the chance, and if he was desperate enough to go behind the boy's back he would soon enough prod the rebel soldier about Kuga as well, however, neither Osamu's mother nor Kuga had been reunited with him in the base after disappearing from society. He was not about to speak with neither his mother nor Kuga for the first time in over two years.

 _What should I even_ say _?_ Osamu squinted down at his shoes scuffing against the floor as he walked aimlessly, the sound of his steps bouncing from wall to wall. He had already ruled out asking Chika about her motives for and methods of leaving Mikado right away, only a few days after she turned _twelve_ , no less, but how would he ease into a conversation? At first he had secretly hoped that Konami or her squadmates would have already explained what led to Osamu's situation, but he then came to remember that it seemed the entire story had been sculpted into a lie he had not yet been informed of. Rather not risk blowing the cover draped over everything, even though he was still stuck with his leg sticking out of it.

It was then, when the fog over Osamu's inner thoughts finally showed signs of thinning, he came to the nail-biting realization that he had gotten himself lost. He found himself at a dead end upon mindlessly turning another corner, and cursed his past self for being an asshole and not taking into consideration the (disturbingly high) possibility of getting lost.

Osamu turned himself around after a stalled moment of regret, nervously glancing down the hallway to his right, where he had come from, and then to his left, which looked like another dead end. Was he at the edge of the base? The chance of a room being on the other side of the closest wall seemed reassuring enough, even if it wasn't much.

 _Can I retrace my steps and find Kuga's room again?_ Osamu groaned, brushing a strand of hair back and feeling the presence of sweat on his forehead. _Was I even paying attention to where I was walking?_

He strained his ears trying to hear any kind of human voice or movement, but was met with an eerie silence. It was offsetting, even creepy, being alone in such a vast expanse of walls that were bare apart from the doors that lined them, which Osamu noticed had become much more scarce since he last paid mind to them. If he knocked on one of them, would someone answer? There was only one way to find out, but he wasn't entirely sure it was worth the chances of being met with an intimidating rebel soldier that had no idea Osamu was supposed to be there.

Osamu hadn't seen out any window for an hour or so, but it _had_ to be dark by now, so it was safe to assume people would soon begin shuffling to their rooms, though Osamu highly doubted he was near any living quarters. The doors were too far apart for that, especially considering the military-like setup. If there wasn't a passcode lock on every door he passed, he probably would have taken a peek inside - who _knows_ what he could be walking past.

After more than a few minutes of guessing-and-checking routes, constantly stopping as he tried to recall which way he had come from, Osamu heard them.

Footsteps.

 _Oh thank God, finally_. Osamu breathed a sigh of relief, hoping whoever was coming towards him, from around a corner somewhere ahead, was friendly and understanding enough to help him. He just hoped it wasn't Jin, since he had already told the man that he wouldn't get lost, and would prefer to avoid the embarrassment. Osamu sped up slightly, towards the sound of impending assistance.

"...Hello there?" He greeted halfheartedly when the tapping of moving feet abruptly stopped, the hidden person probably having heard Osamu as well. He inched forward, just about to stick his head around the corner when the person behind it beat him to it.

It was a little boy from the looks of him, and he was _short_.

He looked to be around whatever Kuga's age was, and was his stature was probably within a few inches of the former, the top of his head barely reaching Osamu's shoulder. A white hat, decorated with a pair of goggles over the rim, covered the top of his head and prevented Osamu from seeing his face until he tilted his head upwards, staring at him strangely with a pair of dark eyes.

 _What the hell is a kid doing here?_

Osamu second-guessed the thought almost immediately, remembering that Kuga had been taken here regardless of how young he was, and Chika disappeared when she was only twelve. Osamu himself was a mere fifteen years old, and he grimaced at the thought of a number of young children being a part of rebel forces.

"Who are you?" The child asked, and if he had gotten the first word Osamu would've said the same thing in a more polite tone.

"Uh, I-I, I'm Mikumo," he coughed out awkwardly, standing up straighter. "Osamu Mikumo. Hey, though, w-?"

"Mi-ku-mo," the child interrupted, sounding out the syllables of Osamu's name like it was a new word he found difficult to pronounce. "Never heard of you before, are you sure?"

 _Am I sure that's my name?_ "What? Of course I'm sure. I'm... _new_ , though, since today, and I'm not sure how fast news spreads here."

"Oh!" His eyes met Osamu's, giving the latter the first decent view of his face. "The new rookie Jin picked up, that's you?"

Osamu wasn't sure if the child was referring to him or Kuga, but based on the general lack of knowledge about Kuga outside of Jin's squad, he assumed more people would have heard of his. "Yeah, that probably m-wait a sec, _rookie_? Wh-What do you mean by _rookie_?"

"What else would I mean?" The boy looked at Osamu in genuine confusion. "You're gonna help out here, aren't you? Why else would you come here? Being honest, you definitely don't look like a proper combatant or anything, but with some training even less-gifted people can fight decently."

Osamu didn't know where to start, and there was a fierce battle going on inside his head over which phrase he should dramatically repeat first, between 'you definitely don't look like a combatant', 'less-gifted', and 'fight'. This kid said _fight_.

"You said _fight_?"

"Fight, yeah. It's what most rebellions do."

" _Fight_?"

"F-I-G-H-T."

"I don't know what's circulating right now, but I can't fight!" Osamu was frantic. _I didn't sign up to fight, did I?_

And then he remembered Jin saying something to him just before Osamu made up his mind about leaving Mikado City.

 _'You can fight, you can live, or you can die.'_

 _Shit._

"Maaan, you're not seriously denying a combat position right off the bat, are you? Like, if you literally _can't_ fight because of personal reasons or something, yeah, don't, that'd be a bad idea, but if that's not the case even inexperienced people like you have promise in the field!"

"Inexperienced... like me... in the field?"

The kid laughed, sounding far too innocent for the kind of atmosphere he was in. "They didn't brief you much, did they?"

Osamu surprised himself by laughing as well, quietly, and almost involuntarily stopped. "I suppose you're right about that." Sensing himself becoming sidetracked, had he not been in the company of another person Osamu would've smacked the side of his head. Focus, he told himself, he had more urgent things to discuss, but Jin would most _definitely_ be interrogated later if he seriously intended to throw Osamu out on the battlefield.

As Osamu pondered over whether he should ask for directions like he originally planned to or ask how and why a kid so young was a part of the rebellion, the child spoke again.

"I'm Yotaro, by the way," he introduced himself just before Osamu opened his mouth. "An _elite agent._ "

This kid, Yotaro, was making Osamu forget what he originally wanted to ask every time he said something. It was one confusing, surprising word to the next. "Wait, y- _you're_ elite?" He hoped he didn't sound rude, but he couldn't possibly picture Yotaro 'elite'. People like Jin or Konami, weren't _those_ what elites were?

"Of _course_ I'm an elite, one of the most important." He grinned as he bragged about his apparent status, big words coming from such a small body, and Osamu could practically see an ego blown up like a hot air balloon over his head. "They probably couldn't do without m-"

" _What_ are you going on about now?"

Osamu hadn't realized how relieving hearing a semi-familiar voice would be, though the snappiness of Konami's was enough to make a person flinch. It didn't seem to bother Yotaro whatsoever, leading Osamu to wonder if they were _actually_ of a similar rank - though he could easily say that an elite soldier who was the age of a grade schooler wouldn't have been the strangest thing he'd come in contact with that day. By comparison to everything else, this could have felt completely normal.

Still only halfway around the corner while he conversed with Yotaro, Osamu hadn't heard Konami approach them until she said something. "Bragging again, Yotaro?"

"I'm only stating the facts, Konami?"

Konami muttered something that neither Osamu nor Yotaro himself caught, but as she did, for the first time Osamu noticed a hint of tiredness hiding behind typically sparkling blue eyes.

 _What time is_ _it?_

"What the hell did he tell you?" Konami sighed while Yotaro put on an expression of exaggerated annoyance, but he already knew he was defeated. "Nothing too out-there, I hope?"

"He said... he was an 'elite agent', or something like that," Osamu voiced his first doubt, half of him honestly not expecting to be proven wrong.

" _See_ , stating the fa-"

Yotaro stopped talking when Konami chopped the top of his head in a motion Osamu hoped was as light as it looked. "Christ, just forget everything he told you," she said, while Yotaro tried helplessly to protest. "He's a trainee. The _elite_ is a class for the talented few."

 _Like you?_ Osamu almost asked, but he refrained from it. "...I see."

"In other words," she concluded, "the opposite of him."

"Wh-What?" Yotaro moved away from Konami's hand threatening to contact his hat a second time, trying (and failing) to maintain whatever dignity he had. He cleared his throat, changing the tone of his voice to a faux seriousness in what was probably an attempt to sound older and more experienced. "Foolish. You underestimate m-"

Another head chop.

Osamu only speculated the scene, high-pitched argument versus high-pitched argument, and his entire view of the rebel organization was changing by the second. Konami, a person who Osamu already assumed was the kind of elite Yotaro said _he_ was, was now red-faced, losing an argument, and utterly pissed.

"What are you doing all the way down here, anyway?" Konami turned to Osamu when she'd had enough of Yotaro, and he copied the motion. "I thought you went to talk to Yuma."

Osamu laughed, though mostly in self-pity and the attempt to cover up anything in his voice that would betray his earlier thoughts. "I did, but then I tried to find the room everyone else was in on my own, and I suppose you can see how that turned out."

"Most people would have to make an effort to get lost if they ended up _this_ far away from their destination," Komami said, luckily only teasing, "so you have my congratulations. You were gonna ask Yotaro for directions, then, weren't you?"

"That was... the plan."

When Konami stared the child down with ice shards in place of her eyes, Yotaro wasn't discreet enough to avoid Osamu catching his confidence flicker off for a moment. "You didn't even answer his question?" She scolded, and amusement and guilt pricked at Osamu as his inner voice reminded him that he never got the chance to ask in the first place.

"H-Hey, he never said a _word_ about directions!"

"So you wanted to go back to the main training hall? Chika should still be there." Konami dismissed him, speaking to Osamu instead, and she pointed down the long corridor he had come from after he nodded. "Turn back that way, you'll see some hallways branching off of this one on the right side, go down the fifth one. It's two doors away from where I'm almost certain Kuga's room would be, if you remember where that was. When you turn, keep going for another two hallways and take a left into the third one, a right at the first one after that, and by then I'm sure you'll be able to hear the crowd in there, so just follow the noise. Got it?"

Osamu said he did, and the directions seemed simple enough to follow and the route easy enough to correct if he did make a wrong turn.

"Yotaro, as much as I'd _love_ to lecture you for wandering off as well, go with him," Konami ordered, getting a muted grumble in response. "Wouldn't want him stumbling into the wrong place, and someone'll show him around first thing tomorrow. Yuma, too, if he's well enough."

Something about Konami's word choice of 'stumbling into the wrong place' felt oddly questionable, but Osamu didn't think much of it. Instead, as Yotaro reluctantly agreed to Konami's command, Osamu followed him while Konami herself continued down the network of mirroring halls.

Yotaro was talking nonstop the entire time, his speech mostly consisting of various 'accomplishments' that he felt were absolutely necessary to inform Osamu of. Osamu could admit that he learned a thing or two about how the base functioned through listening to him, so he couldn't complain, and if he were honest, just about everything Yotaro said was either cute or actually impressive.

On the topic of learning things, for example, Osamu was able to establish that this particular base had a number of 'virtual training rooms', as Yotaro had put it, and most of them could be found in the grand room Osamu had met Chika in earlier. Yotaro made them sound like some kind of a state-of-the-art fighting simulation where people completed matches against each other, in which any injuries inflicted within the simulation would do no harm to the users' real bodies, to Osamu's fascination. The base also had normal training rooms, apparently used more often according to Yotaro, and he had said the virtual program was used primarily for tournaments and such, which involved a ranking system he then mentioned multiple times.

There were other, smaller things Osamu picked up, such as qualities of the miniature rooms that served as living quarters for the soldiers and things people would do when they weren't on duty, the specifics there giving him the impression that more people than not were strangely relaxed when they weren't on a mission. He'd also learned that Yotaro was eleven years old.

"-and Konami said I would lose, but then I- Hey, Osamu, are you even listening?"

"What? Oh, yeah, yeah I'm listening, sorry." Osamu was surprised by the younger boy referring to him by his first name, but he doubted there was anything significant to gain from calling him out on it. By now he could hear muffled voices coming from somewhere up ahead, as Konami had said he would, though it was already audible that the number of people congregated there had decreased.

" _Oh-sah-moo."_ Yotaro poked his arm with an index finger. "If there was a streetlamp in here for whatever reason, you'd be walking into it."

"What?"

"You keep spacing out," he clarified, looking up at Osamu while the both of them still walked.

"...D-Do I?"

"If I had to guess why, I heard something about the new guy having known Chika when she lived in... er, Avocado-"

" _Mikado_."

"-Mikado, that's what I said. Since Konami mentioned her I assumed that's probably true, so you nervous or something, is that it?"

Osamu pushed up his glasses, partially to hide the surprise that was temporarily etched on his face. "I... I think so, but I guess I feel like I shouldn't be."

"Right, you shouldn't," Yotaro stated bluntly, resting his hands behind his head. "Don't think about what you 'need' to say, you'll learn that as you say it. People only ever say the wrong things when they stress themselves out over it beforehand, and most of the time I don't even think they _know_ it was the wrong thing. Just, like, talk. Whatever you say first without planning anything out, that's what your head wants you to say."

Osamu was naturally skeptical of bits of Yotaro's advice, if it would even be dubbed that, but he saw it as nothing more than a kid trying to offer his help, so he said nothing and nodded in acknowledgement.

A couple of people, both strangers to Osamu, passed them in the hall, and Osamu ducked his head down as nonchalantly as he could. He still was yet to know the false story being intentionally spread around covering the mission in Mikado, and would prefer to avoid having to explain anything about his arrival before he did. Yotaro waved to both of the strangers, clad in almost-matching vibrant red jackets, and they returned the gesture without questioning who Osamu was before continuing on their way.

He felt a draft of cold air as the chatter ahead grew louder, and Osamu found himself struggling just enough to be considering what Yotaro had said - it wasn't really true, was it? He had basically told Osamu to say everything on an impulse, which, sure, would've been honest, but in this situation being 'honest' would mean nagging Chika about her disappearance. Not the best kind of reunion, was it? Maybe Yotaro had meant that thinking _too_ much would make Osamu mess up, so he would have to find some kind of middle zone between overthinking and not thinking at all, and-

" _Chikaaaaaaa!_ "

Nerves wearing a glove of broken glass grabbed his heart when Yotaro's ringing screech reached Osamu's ears, and he looked down to see the child with hands cupped around his mouth as he yelled into the open room in front of them. It reminded Osamu of what Konami did to seek out Chika before, and just like that time, heads turned in sync with each other while Yotaro took in a breath to call out again.

"W-W-W-What are you _doing_?" Osamu hissed in panic, turning so he was standing in front of Yotaro with his back to the crowd. He could _feel_ people staring at him, again, and was dismayed at the innocent expression on Yotaro's face.

"Helping you? Thank me later, young Four-Eyes." His left hand curled into a thumbs-up.

"Young wh-? N-Nevermind that, I can find her on m-"

"Oh, he's returned."

"Who's returned?"

Osamu only recognized the first voice, and the unfamiliar second one sounded like it belonged to a boy a couple of years or so younger than him. When he looked to the side and saw the two speakers, he confirmed that the first was indeed the girl with the white uniform that had been with Chika earlier, while the second was a young boy he hadn't seen before with choppy brown hair that partially covered one eye. Chika stood between them.

"It's about _time_ ," the girl said as she confidently made her way towards Osamu and a smug-looking Yotaro, though Osamu thought it looked like Chika was attempting to discourage her with words he could not hear from his distance. "The hell did you run off too, leaving Chikako out-of-the-blue?"

"I, uh, I had to clear something up," he told her, not wanting to make it sound casual by simply saying 'I talked to Kuga'. "S-Sorry, what's your name?"

"I'm Izuho Natsume. Chikako's friend," she added, pointing to Chika in case Osamu was somehow confused by her nickname, before introducing the boy as well. "And he's Ema Yuzuru."

"Is this that Mikumo guy people are talking about?" Yuzuru had come forward as well without Osamu noticing, Chika a couple of steps behind him. "The one that knew Amatori?" His green eyes were cold, and Osamu didn't have to do much to sense the mistrust cracking in the air around them. Did he do something? Were there incorrect rumors floating around about him?

"You're popular, Osamu," Yotaro stood on his toes to whisper in Osamu's ear, sounding encouraging.

"Osamu Mikumo," Osamu told them his full name, not responding verbally to Yotaro but glancing at him so he would know he had been heard, bowing his head stiffly. "Nice... Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Izuho smiled at him, but Yuzuru didn't say anything. "...Well, I think. He's a decent person, right?"

"O-Of course!" Chika spoke for the first time, her eyes drifting from Osamu to Izuho. "I'm sure you'll get along fine," she assured, and Osamu only hoped that she was directing that statement at Izuho _and_ Yuzuru, whose expression didn't look any more welcoming.

The silence that followed was _agonizing_ , and Osamu was determined to fill it with something before anything became awkward - as he started to speak, however, Chika was far faster.

"...I'm sorry."

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **The one time I'm actually keeping with daily word count goals turns out to be the longest chapter yet, so I still end up scrambling to update. ;-; This chapter and the next one were originally planned as a single chapter, but I would've ran out of time if this one got any longer, so I split the two up! _ (I blame Osamu and his ridiculous 1,000-word monologues. Still love him though) Not exactly any action-packed events here, but I assure you that things are lining up to finally get rolling!**

 **And Yotaro's aged up six years here, so if I find time to do it I'll definitely draw him at some point. He gets to be plot-important, and it would be a lot harder for him to play his role if he was still five. ^^; I do like him a whole lot and I hope readers will too!**

 **(Reminder: No new chapter next week with the temporary schedule!)**


	11. Welcome to Hell, Have a Gift Basket

"He turned it down?"

Ninomiya sighed when he heard the bright voice question him, resting a finger on his left temple as his elbow rested on the arm of a chair. "I suppose it should have been expected, don't act so surprised. But the Commander still believed there was some worth in making an attempt."

The other person, also male, laughed as he brushed a strand of hair from his forehead, only for it to fall back moments later. "Tamakoma never changes! I might start feeling bad if they're beaten too badly."

"Don't be arrogant, Inukai," a third person advised out of the corner of Ninomiya's eye, this one's voice more level as he spoke. "They have not only Jin on their side now, but the Trion boy as well. Even if there _is_ an advantage on our side, don't take them too lightly."

"There's no guarantee that the kid'll even fight for them," Inukai countered, raising his index finger with a smile.

"Yes, but counting on something unpredictable like that is dangerous."

"Tsuji's right," a female voice from the other side of the room contributed. "And out of the three of you, he's definitely, by far, the _least_ arrogant."

Ninomiya began to say something, but he already knew that the young woman, Aki Hiyami, was not one many were filling to face in an argument. It wasn't as if she was wrong, either, though it would take a lot for him to ever admit it.

"I'd just rather be cautious," Tsuji affirmed, though he nodded to Hiyami in silent thanks. "If we plan around the possibility of facing a stronger force than usual, if that comes to be the case we'd have already prepared for it, and if doesn't, no harm comes from overestimating them if they're weaker than predicted."

"A challenge would be fun once in awhile," Inukai said to himself blankly, staring up at the ceiling, "but what you're saying makes sense."

"Are we taking the mission?" Hiyami asked the squad captain, Ninomiya, as she looked up from her monitor with raised eyebrows. "I haven't heard anything from the higher-ups."

"They're yet to brief me any further as well, though I'd keep it in mind. A covert mission would be the best option to avoid any further conflict with Neighbors in the midst of this, but I doubt we'll be the first ones assigned."

" _Laaaame_." Inukai's voice was thick with unspoken complaints underneath his words. "They made _you_ speak to Jin, and Hiyami actually contact him under radar, and we can't even _go_?"

"I see our squad being sent if a second attempt is necessary, or as reinforcements," Tsuji told him, though he had his own doubts. "Kazama Squad specializes in this type of thing, after all, so they would be a more reasonable first choice. The couple of squads above them, too."

"But _we_ specialize in this type of thing," Inukai said rested his cheek in his hand.

"Only for a certain type of situation."

"Don't get the wrong idea, Kazama Squad _is_ good, but I wish they'd send _us_ out more."

"Using you guys too often would lead to the Neighbors discovering us," Hiyami told them both, this time keeping her eyes locked on the computer screen as she carried on with a report. "And there's no telling what kind of disaster that could lead to."

"Revealing our existence to the Neighbors, and our identities to the remainder of Tamakoma, would be fatal," Ninomiya concurred, though he spoke coldly. "Recent missions have already ended in close calls, so it's especially reasonable for the Commander to not place us in the field for the time being."

"But it's booooooring," Inukai complained again, but if Ninomiya had to make assumptions it sounded like he wasn't willing to argue any further. "I'm almost hoping the first try will end up failing, but nothing I can do. Wait with optimism, maybe."

Tsuji gave him a strange look and asked in a low volume, "How is hoping for the mission's failure considered optimism?" His captain missed the line entirely, and if Hiyami did hear it she didn't say anything.

"I'd expect they need to act quickly," Ninomiya grumbled, "if the information we have on the child is accurate."

Hiyami only glanced up from her screen. "There's still plenty of time, I'm sure?"

Ninomiya clasped his hands together, resting his chin on them with a low sigh. She was right, wasn't she? She _had_ to be right.

"There is, but it's running out."

"...I'm sorry." The words were spoken in a tone of forced friendliness, accompanied by a weak smile. The people around Chika froze, two of their mouths ajar, and even the talkative Yotaro had no reply.

Osamu instinctively reached a hand out in concern, though the crook of his elbow still pressed against his rib cage. "Y-"

"I know you probably resent me." Chika, stopping Osamu from replying, couldn't meet his eye. "I left without telling anyone. At... at the least, I should have said goodbye. I should've been able to trust my friends and family enough, where I could tell them I'd be alright without having to explain what I decided to do, because I think they would have trusted _me_. If... if you're totally furious with me for abandoning everyone, I'll understand."

Osamu stood, shocked, and with almost all his words snatched away with no warning, all he could do was scramble for the few that remained. "Wh-? Wait, you really think that? That I'd be _furious_?"

"Well, I-I disappeared, didn't I? And never even had it in me to tell people I was alive! I only caused trouble for everyone back then, I can assume that much without having to have seen the aftermath."

"Of _course_ people were worried," Osamu told her, though was quick to follow up before she could react badly. "But if you left _knowing_ that, there had to have been an important reason. I'm not mad, God no, I'm just glad you're alright, like, beyond words glad. And anyone else in Mikado would be, too, if they were here instead of me." He was being honest - not once had anger invaded the chaotically scribbled line his emotions had been in the past day, and under the initial shock, seeing Chika could have been classified as nothing short of a miracle.

"Yeah, the heck are you thinking?" Izuho ruffled the top of Chika's head playfully, her voice sounding like a kind mother scolding her child. "If Four-Eyes has a head on his shoulders, he'd only be happy! And look at him- what was it? Beyond _words_ glad."

"I understand where you're coming from, Chika," Osamu continued, "but it's far from the truth. Telling people you were alive could've put them in danger, for all I know, and it takes a strong person to keep a secret like that for the good of others."

Osamu had never seen Chika as a, so to say, 'strong person', but he couldn't imagine what actually living and working in a place like this was like (especially at the young age in which she left Mikado City), and from the look in her eyes Osamu already knew _something_ in her had changed. The thought of Chika fighting Neighbors like Jin and Konami made his head spin - though she she may have had a position away from combat, as Yotaro had hinted at the availability of earlier.

Chika began to mutter an apology, clearly still forcing a smile, but before she finished even a word Izuho shushed her with another fluff of her hair. "Hey, not another apology, right?"

Osamu brushed away the annoying voice trying to convince him to ask Chika _how_ she had managed to escape, and instead spoke a hopefully lighter question following Izuho's one of reassurance. "What's it like here, though? Does everyone live here?"

She looked surprised at Osamu's sudden veering off the path their conversation had previously been going down, but the expression was overtaken by her trying to subdue a giggle. "Where _else_ would we live?"

"Well, a- I don't know, another building? Facility? Base? Maybe?"

Izuho laughed at him, too, though it was a good-hearted laugh. "Right, we gotta travel to another base every night to sleep. Convenient!" Yotaro seemed to find it quite funny as well, but Yuzuru only sighed loudly.

"W-Well how was I to know?" Osamu defended himself, trying to hide the fact that he, too, was ready to laugh at his own words. "Compared to other things, I can't say it would even be that surprising, anyways."

"Yes, everyone lives here," Chika answered his question, and the smile lingering on her face brought one to Osamu's. "You should expect a roommate, though - maybe the other person that Jin brought? Hopefully he's nice!"

Osamu had never shared a room with anyone, and he could admit that the thought was mildly intimidating - he wanted to say Kuga wasn't a factor in that intimidation, but despite the boy's reciprocated acceptance of Osamu's presence, there was still the whole, 'I watched you die' thing, and Kuga was as much of a mystery as he had been before.

"Hopefully he will be," Osamu agreed, and in his head added an unspoken, _and hopefully he won't be a zombie or something_.

"As for what it's like?" Chika backtracked to what Osamu had asked first. "Everyone knows each other, maybe because we're smaller than the other group,"

 _Other group?_

"and it's surprisingly casual most of the time. I remember being scared at first, but it went away really quickly. It's only when there's something going on do things get... hectic, but I try not to worry too much."

Osamu was only half-listening. What _other_ group?

And then he remembered Jin's words.

' _Like I said, there are people after Kuga, and those people won't hesitate to torture anyone they believe may know something.'_

No way. No way was that what Chika referred to.

"Things have been quiet recently," Yotaro added, bringing Osamu back to the conversation. "Apart from smaller missions every now and then, of course, but I think we'll be alright overall for a while. You showed up at a good time."

Osamu knew he wouldn't even _want_ to know what kind of events caused the base to turn 'hectic', but if all went smoothly, perhaps he would never have to experience them firsthand. Wishful thinking, really, the odds of that were hilariously nonexistent. "The people here seem nice," was all he said. He immediately reconsidered the words upon catching a glance of Yuzuru's expression from the corner of his eye - not hostile by any means, but definitely straying from friendly. Or, maybe, Osamu was overthinking and it could've simply been his resting face.

"Things may be quiet, but you should _see_ Chikako when she fights," Izuho said enthusiastically, waving a hand in front of her friend with a pride enough to make Osamu laugh before realizing what she actually said. "She's like- _boom_! Ace level, Four-Eyes, ace level! She could, like, totally mentor you if you end up being a sniper."

 _Then_ it hit him.

"Wait, did you-? Fights? _Sniper_?"

"I-I'm not that good," Chika, the bright red of her face making cherries pale in comparison, denied at the same time with a nervous smile, embarrassed at being bragged about in the way Izuho had. "You're inflating everything, Izuho!"

" _Hold on a second_ , y-you're not saying Chika's a sn-"

"You're minimizing yourself," Izuho argued, ignoring Osamu. "Seriously, Four-Eyes, you could ask anyone else and they'd tell you the same thing."

Chika yelped, shaking her head. "Don't ask other people!"

"Why are you so surprised, Mikumo?" Yuzuru silenced Izuho before she could say something aggressively positive, him referring to Osamu's questions that had been overlooked by the blonde girl and possibly not even heard by Chika. "About Amatori, that is."

Osamu hadn't expected to be spoken to in the next couple of minutes at the least, and no less by Yuzuru, so he tripped around in his head trying to come up with a reply. "O-Oh, I guess it was... unexpected? No, that's the wrong word, er- okay, maybe it wasn't, nevermind. Yeah, kind of unexpected?"

A person probably didn't even have to _know_ Chika to have a difficult time picturing her as a _soldier -_ her physical appearance alone looked as if she could be knocked over by a breeze. Osamu thought that with no offence intended, of course, but the Chika he knew was _fragile_ \- body and mind alike. Had she really changed that much?

"Of course it would be," Chika responded, sounding strangely unaffected, "it's been... awhile, after all. And I'm not a fighter type, anyways."

" _Wroooong_."

"Izuho!"

"So she really..." Osamu muttered under his breath, under the ears of a bickering Chika and Izuho, as well as Yotaro who was trying to join in himself.

"She has a great amount of potential," Yuzuru said suddenly, and Osamu was surprised he heard him. "And while Natsume _is_ exaggerating a bit, there's no denying Amatori has strength. _But_ ," he added as Osamu started to speak again, "there's also no denying her weakness."

"Weakness?"

Yuzuru never replied, (if he did, it was drowned out by Izuho) and with that Osamu looked at Chika with a newfound unease. Weakness? He couldn't see Chika as an ace-level sniper to begin with, but if what Izuho had been saying held any meaning, she was far from weak overall. Then a single weakness, perhaps, but _what_?

"I'm going to a match," the younger boy said suddenly, interrupting what was probably Izuho's idea of a motivational speech. Osamu wouldn't dare ask him to elaborate on 'weakness' now that he'd changed the subject.

"Are people still training at this time?" Izuho turned her head towards him and raised an eyebrow, Yotaro looking similar while Chika's face remained neutral. "It's got to be after or almost sunset by now, so most people are gonna be eating something."

After hearing that, Osamu did come to notice that the crowd previously shuffling around the room had thinned, sometime between then and when he'd first approached Chika and her friends. Come to think of it, he _was_ hungry, and his train of thought abruptly shifted course to the possible locations of food.

"I'm sure there's a few stragglers," Yuzuru predicted, staring at a tuft of hair that had fallen further in front of his eye. "No harm in getting extra practice in. Besides, I'd rather go now than when the training hall gets crowded at night."

"But isn't it better when there's more people?"

Yuzuru shrugged and replied, "For you, maybe."

"I'm eating, then, you can catch up," Izuho announced, dramatically putting a hand on her forehead as she poorly imitated fatigue. "Chikako, you coming? Oh, and Yotaro and Four-Eyes, too, if you guys are hungry."

Osamu nodded, his stomach threatening to punch itself at any given moment, while Yotaro seemed several times more enthusiastic. Izuho high-fived him before Yuzuru advised the both of them to 'quiet down', and then the white-clad girl offered to show Osamu to the base's dining hall, as she had called it. Where would a place like this even _get_ food? They didn't seriously make it all themselves, did they? And even if they did, where would the ingredients come from? Osamu pondered over the possibility of stealing provisions from the Neighbors' cities, but there was no doubt that the feat would be incredibly difficult, especially if there was a large amount of people residing in the base.

"Osamu," Yotaro whispered, standing on his toes, "say something."

"Am I?"

"What?"

"Wh-What...?"

"You two, hurry up!" Izuho shouted from a couple of meters away, Chika ducking from the attention her friend seemed to attract wherever she went.

Yuzuru had started on his way without a sound, lazily waving from over his shoulder. Izuho was complaining about something (no, someone) to Chika, and it sounded like it was about Osamu lagging behind by a precious five seconds, so with a sigh he followed Yotaro towards the two girls who were already walking.

It was weirdly relaxed in the unfamiliar place, weirdly relaxed and surprisingly friendly, and there were few ways that it could have possibly been any more different from what Osamu was expecting. Granted, there were vast oceans of information he was yet to sail, but on the surface the base certainly wasn't screaming 'military organization' once a person walked out of the hangar. He could only count on the residents actually being able to defend themselves when faced with a threat, but if Jin's capability said anything, that wouldn't be a major issue.

Osamu was still left with only hope for the future, equally near and far.

There would come a point in everyone's life in which they were convinced they could never be lower. A point where they could never look like as much of a fool as they did then. Yuma had been convinced he reached that point earlier.

And, as Fate would have it, he quickly realized he had not.

What was more degrading than being controlled by a near-stranger in exchange for information about your own life? Perhaps being pushed around in a chair by that same stranger because you'd tripped upon trying to walk.

The wheelchair squeaked against cold floors as Yuma's finger tapped against its arm, the only other sound being Jin quietly humming something to himself. (Something that Yuma found somewhat catchy.) A wheelchair made Yuma's physical state seem _much_ worse than it actually was, and while, yes, he did stumble trying to walk after stepping out of his cot, Yuma was still confident he would be just fine walking if he'd had time to stretch his legs. Jin, however, said he would rather not take the risk of making Yuma weaker by having him walk more than a few feet.

Yuma assumed Osamu would completely lose it if he saw him then, a thought that made him smile to himself despite internally begging for it not to happen. Amusing? Definitely, but not worth trying to explain to a panicked teenager that he wasn't on Death's door. Not worth making said teenager panic in the first place, really. Thankfully, after several questions Jin had assured him that hardly anyone walked through the part of the base they were going through, and it would be especially unlikely for Osamu to. Yuma wondered if the route was intentional.

Yuma asked Jin where they were going, and why it was so urgent that he had to push Osamu out of the situation, but the answers were vague - a meeting, he'd said. Briefing of some sort, he'd clarified after. It had obviously been organized within the last few hours, since, according to the last time they spoke, Jin had not intended to move Yuma anywhere for the remainder of the day. He was still reluctant to take him, but the fact that Yuma _had_ to go told the boy that whatever they were going to discuss had to have something to do with him.

Jin was right about not many people venturing along their path, and in fact, the closest another person came to them was in the form of the sound of far-off footsteps that barely caught Yuma's ears. Part of him was glad they didn't run into anyone, and the other part found it creepy.

They used an elevator to ascend to the base's second above-ground level, the sliding door wide enough to accommodate the bulky wheelchair Jin insisted was necessary. There were more windows on the second floor, stretching taller and wider and probably taking up more space than the walls themselves. The landscape they showcased was pitiful to the eye, but had a certain peacefulness that had settled over the array of crumbling buildings and other miscellaneous structures being eroded and overgrown by plant life. The sun was no longer visible over the distant horizon, and without the light of a city below them, the stars appearing one by one each seemed to be brighter. Since he had woken up, Yuma was always able to find shelter relatively close to one of the Neighbors' districts and the light they produced, and looking at the untouched sky for the first time was breathtaking.

"Pretty, isn't it?" Jin asked, having noticed Yuma facing the glass for the past few minutes. "The view's better from the roof, though, you should see it sometime."

"...I'll try to."

Yuma's response was stiff and awkward, but Jin didn't mind it. He seemed to have a skill in continuing one-sided conversations. "It's been getting warmer lately, but I bet it'll still be another month or so until the nights are comfortable. Unless you don't mind the cold, of course."

"I don't, not really."

His only places of shelter up until then had been abandoned buildings, and entering Mikado City was the first time Yuma had actually managed to sneak into a city, and it was a task that took far too much careful forethought and planning to do it nightly. Because of that, though, after being forced to sleep in outdoor temperatures the cold stopped bothering him as much after the first week. If there was one reason to be happy about being in the rebel base, it was a warm room and bed. And food, of course - finding it outside was tedious and exhausting, and there were always the possible consequences from eating it.

Jin stopped pushing Yuma's chair in front of a pair of gray sliding double-doors, walking forward to put in a passcode as Yuma watched his fingers carefully in attempt to remember which numbers he entered. He couldn't see the screen, but he tried to take note of where Jin was tapping in case he would need the code in the future.

"A few of these people are the squad from earlier," Jin spoke to him casually again, and again Yuma was suspicious of his friendly attitude. Yuma didn't know who he was referring to by 'the squad from earlier', but as he began to ask, the double doors slid open and he was met with what his answer would probably be.

"You were unconscious," Jin laughed, "so you wouldn't have seen them anyways, but the people on the left are the people that were with me in Mikado City."

Nine people were seated around a long table, and on the left side a small strawberry blonde girl stood out the most, mainly due to her lighter hair and brighter uniform in comparison to the others. Next to her was another girl probably around her age, with black hair and cheerful eyes that glittered under red-rimmed classes. A tall, muscular man sat beside her, and beside him was a conventionally attractive younger one, both with more serious appearances than their female companions. Five adults occupied five chairs on the other side of the table, three men and two women, with three of them wearing similar, professional-looking attire and the remaining two in clothes on the border between casual and formal. One of the men put out a dying cigarette as Jin and Yuma opened the doors, while both women smiled at them.

"Meet Tamakoma's Special Operations Unit, our executives, and Yuri and Cronin." Jin introduced them, though only using two individual names, and he nodded down to Yuma as the doors closed behind them. "They're glad to have you, Yuma."

With the light from the hallway gone, the room was a lot, lot darker.


	12. The Shift and The Shifters

The meeting room was dimly lit, probably an intentional look if Yuma were to guess, and most light came from the stars and moon visible through the windows and a thin strip of blue light stretching around the table's inner edges. Yuma thought it was strange.

His eyes fell on each of the nine faces observing him, relieved to see hostility absent from all of them. A young woman sporting a high ponytail looked the most friendly, he observed, but Yuma wasn't sure whether he should be soothed by or suspicious of the fact that these people smiled so welcomingly.

"Meet Tamakoma's Special Operations Unit, our executives, and Yuri and Cronin." Jin introduced them, though only using two individual names, and he nodded down to Yuma as the doors closed behind them. "They're glad to have you, Yuma."

Yuma couldn't tell exactly who was who, but he figured it was likely the three people in suits, two men and a woman, were the executives. Jin had said the people sitting on the left side of the table had been with him in Mikado City, so he could assume they were the Special Operations Unit. That left Yuri and Cronin, the last two, seated next to the suit-clad woman.

"I'm glad to see you're awake," one of the girls, this one wearing red glasses, greeted him with a smile. "My name's Shiori. You gave us quite a scare, so it's a relief you're going to be alright! Yuma, was it?"

Yuma nodded.

"Did we miss any injuries?" She asked him, and Yuma wondered if she was purposely dodging the actual reason he was in the room in the first place. "I'm sorry we can't do a lot for the pain, but if everything goes well I think it'll go away in a days."

"About the injuries, no, I don't think so," he told her, shaking his head stiffly. "And, uh... thank you."

"Oh, don't thank anyone!" Shiori laughed. "Of course, Yuma, as long as you feel better."

One of the executive men cleared his throat. "Anyways," he said before Yuma spoke, "has Jin told you why we asked you here on such short notice?"

"No..." He answered, overruling something as simple as 'a briefing', and then paused. "Was he _supposed_ to?"

"We told him not to say anything specific, don't worry. I apologize for any inconvenience, but I'm afraid it's urgent."

"What is it, then?"

"First of all," he began with an introduction, "I'm Director Shinoda, the military commander of this branch. I organized the mission to retrieve you, and would like to emphasize that we had no hostile intentions in doing so, and you being injured was not part of the plan. So again, I deeply apologize." Yuma didn't say anything, only intent on listening, so Shinoda kept talking. "I trust you've established that the reason you're here is because of your ability?"

Yuma nodded again.

"We're aware you've experienced it twice before this, three times including the incident in Mikado. Do you know anything about it?"

Yuma's face was stained white, though the lighting in the room made it hard to tell. Why were they asking him this? Talking about it caused words to become lodged in his throat and unorganized in his head, he hated it, hated it, hated it, _hated_ -

His thoughts froze.

"I... can't die."

He had no idea what to say, how to word anything properly, and there was barely any information available to him even if he did have the words. Based off of what Jin had said earlier, too, he wasn't even certain if what he _had_ said was _correct_. The young man's words echoed in his ears.

 _'So, you think you can't die, then?'_

Shinoda didn't tell him whether the assumption was factual or not, and instead asked another question. "Is that the extent of what you've established?"

"What do you want me to describe?" Yuma questioned him right back, uncertain what kind of information the Director was looking for. "Physical appearances? Triggers for it?"

"Whatever you're aware of is fine."

"I've only caught my reflection once," he began. "My... my eyes look weird. I'm not sure how I would describe it." Should he reference Jin? He wouldn't, he decided; he had no idea if the man disclosing his own ability was an act according to orders or not. "My pupils are bright, like a really light green, and there's... a ring, a ring around them."

He didn't look at everyone's faces directly, but from the corners of his vision it seemed they were all fixed on Jin.

"There's lines on my skin," Yuma continued, cursing himself as he heard his voice rapidly losing composure. "I can see them, on my arms and legs, and on my hands, and my stomach, they're on my face-"

He cut himself off when he felt Jin's hand on his shoulder.

 _Is that enough?_

Shinoda said something too quietly for Yuma to hear, but the woman next to him nodded in agreement to whatever it was. "Jin, did you show him?"

"I did."

"Then Yuma, you've seen that Jin has an ability similar to yours?"

Yuma nodded one more time. Nodding was nice, he decided, it wasn't necessary to say anything, it was hardly necessary to reveal anything. Spoken words could betray him.

"And he's already told you this," Shindoa's looked up at Jin for a moment, "but the two of you aren't the only ones of your kind."

'Your kind', he said. Yuma didn't like those words.

"It's a rare case," he kept talking, so Yuma kept listening, "but there are other people like you out there. And more people yet who are somewhat similar, but classified differently because the ability doesn't affect them as drastically."

"How much do you know?" Yuma asked, more enthusiastically than he wanted to, but it was honest. Maybe these people would tell him what Jin kept from him - he said he would give Yuma information in exchange for helping the rebels, and he _had_ ended up being cornered into it, hadn't he? Was _this_ part of what Jin meant?

Jin picked up Shinoda's side of the conversation, stepping back a bit so it was easier to meet Yuma's eyes without having to sit down himself. "What you experience is a mutation resulting from the presence of a substance naturally found in Neighbor blood, 'Trion'. It's what gives them superior physical strength and general ability, and both them and us use it as a component in making weapons. A normal sword or bullet would barely scratch even a weaker Neighbor, as you may have already known."

"...I'm a Neighbor, then?" Yuma found it hard to believe, but with sweat dotting his forehead he knew he had no means of disproving it. "Ji- _You're_ a Neighbor?"

Jin shook his head. "Some people may say that, technically, we would be, but nobody here believes that's accurate. Outside of this base, the answer to that question depends on who you're talking to, but scientifically, we're not Neighbors."

Did Yuma see him frown? He definitely frowned, even if for no longer than a moment.

"Because of the effect Trion has on Neighbors' bodies," Jin kept going, "that, as I said, gives them a huge advantage strength-wise, they started asking themselves what kind of effect it would have on humans." He looked to his superior. "Director Shinoda?"

Yuma's rapidly beating heart dropped to his stomach.

"They performed experiments on people they captured," Shinoda continued in Jin's place. "Operating with the organ that produces Trion, referred to as the Trion gland, something that humans don't naturally possess. The idea was to capture people already under their control and create humans with the same, if not greater, Trion capacity as Neighbors to expand their military. However," his voice lowered, "the survival rate was... extremely low, and on top of that many captives were pushed to committing suicide rather than enduring any more of the tests. Though it's worth mentioning that few, and very few, managed to escape."

Yuma wanted to say something, he felt he should. The silence was painful, but the subject matter of the conversation was in no way any better. Shinoda sighed to himself, and Yuma noticed the man look towards Jin again.

He made the blood-chilling connection sooner than he'd liked. Shinoda only verbalized it.

"And Jin was one of those escapees."

A part of Yuma saw it coming, but the words hit him as no less of a shock. The events of Jin's apparent roots came across to Yuma as, based on how Shinoda had described the Neighbors' experiments, a series of horrific experiences he couldn't imagine. As he warily glanced at Jin himself, Yuma was cruelly reminded of one thing: their abilities were the same.

 _Their abilities were the same_.

Was it selfish of him to be thinking of himself when something of such weight had just been revealed about Jin? Perhaps, Yuma knew that, but it was hard not to.

"You look troubled, Yuma," Jin laughed from Yuma's side, a sound almost as surprising as what Shinoda had said. How could he laugh in a situation like this? Was grief already beyond him? How long had he been freed?

He kept speaking in the oddly normal voice.

"Don't worry, you weren't one of the captives."

 _What?_

"What?"

... _Wait, dammit, I didn't mean to say that out loud_.

"You and Jin are different cases," Shinoda told him, Jin remaining silent. "I'll refer to it as similar results brought about by different event sequences. You weren't in the Neighbors' hands at any point, unless our data is wildly inaccurate. But that doesn't mean they don't know you exist - that's among the reasons why we decided to bring you here, because they've labeled you as a threat and a target. Not to be eliminated, but to endure a similar ordeal as those who were victim to the original experimenting, and join their side of the fight. That's what we can predict."

Yuma barely heard the last bit, his head was too intent on focusing on the phrase 'similar results brought about by different event sequences.' "So what's my... my _case_?" He asked, fueled by anticipation and curiosity and held back by fear. "You can explain it, can't you?"

Part of Yuma didn't want to hear it. In contrast to everything that had gone through his head since talking with Jin, a part of him wanted to stay ignorant.

Shinoda met the glances of the other people sitting around the table. The woman next to him, looking wary, nodded so minimally that Yuma barely noticed her do it, and the others seemed to trust that whatever the Director would say next was the correct approach.

"Start from the root of it," the woman advised him, looking at Yuma sympathetically for a brief moment. "That'll make everything else easier to explain."

"Right," Shinoda sighed, carefully thinking through each of his next words. "Kuga, from what Jin's told us, you have no memory prior to the time you woke up outside the walls, is that accurate?"

Yuma didn't like how many possibilities there were. But he nodded again.

Shinoda paused for a time that seemed longer to Yuma than it was, before facing him with a look of solemnity that was shared by the eight other faces around him. The room fell silent, and with no other voices coming through his ears, Yuma's heartbeat pounded in his senses like a drum waiting for the curtain to open.

"...See, you've been asleep for fifty years."

Hyuse hated this damn cloak.

Scratchy, it was too scratchy around the neck - and the atrocious collar was another matter entirely, but he knew it was practical due to the number of soldiers that wouldn't be able to fit it over their horns otherwise. Even though it was worn above the standard military uniform (which was at least bearable), he could almost feel the material annoyingly dragging across his skin. Wearing it felt suffocating and thick, and the wide collar seemed to shrink closer to his neck every time he paid mind to it, eventually choking him in the coarse, black fabric. Hyuse promised to burn the thing should he ever graduate from it.

It always felt worse before a meeting, though, he'd become aware of that after several of them. The mental shrinking of the collar happened faster, and the fabric became sandpaper every time Hyuse walked down the familiar marble-accented hallway. The dark sky that slipped through tall windows along it was hardly calming, and even without a clock Hyuse knew it had to have been getting late, and he hoped the meeting would move as quickly as possible. If it did, there would be less time for unwanted questions he knew he was unable to answer.

Doors dusted with white from the rising moon, almost matching the color of twin horns on the sides of his head, loomed before him, their curved, golden handles silently laughing at his hesitation. Hyuse extended a hand and found they were cold to the touch, and as the cloak brushed over his throat in a final taunt, he pushed open the wooden barriers as silently as he could manage.

The collar felt looser when he noticed he wasn't the last to arrive, glancing at a second empty seat in addition to his own. Last-minute paperwork resulted in Hyuse running somewhat late, and for once he was grateful for the constant tardiness of one of his teammates, Enedora. That man _was_ useful for something, after all.

"Hyuse." He was acknowledged by the black-horned man at the head of the table, whom he responded to with a polite nod. The other three people occupying the meeting room looked at Hyuse in silence, and the only woman among them, Mira, gestured for him to sit.

"Apologies for my tardiness," he said curtly while bowing his head, before taking a seat and waiting for the arrival of the unit's final member. Now that Hyuse had been spared of the embarrassment that was holding up a meeting, Enedora always being late became rather annoying again.

That particular soldier threw the doors open loudly after what was an estimated five minutes later, and Hyuse tapped his finger on the surface of the table in irritation as the weighted door collided with the wall. The sound it made made him grind his teeth as he waited for the inevitable feeling of suffocation that would soon follow when the meeting actually began.

"You're late," Mira said flatly, not bothering to look up as she read something off a transparent screen projected from a small device on the table in front of her.

"Feh, as if any of you would _go_ anywhere," Enedora muttered, "I could've shown up twenty minutes from now and nobody would've done a thing."

Hyuse sighed, tired and thinking about sleeping early once the matters at hand had been dealt with. "Try it, bless us with a twenty extra minutes of peace."

Enedora whipped around, glaring towards the bored expression that met him. "Don't run your mouth, sm-"

" _Quiet_ ," Mira ordered in their direction, her voice not raising in volume but gaining a more authoritative undertone, one that was rather efficient. "You'll _both_ see punishment if you can't stand each other's company for a mere ten seconds. Sit down, Enedora."

He was really no better than a child, Hyuse observed, watching him walk defiantly towards his spot at the table with a nasty look on his face. It never ceased to be surprising that he hadn't gotten himself killed for saying something atrociously out of line.

"Now that he's arrived, on _another_ note," the captain, Hyrein, began, his voice tinged with the reluctance to deal with any extra troubles. "I'm sure you've already been informed of what's become of the Trion child - first, we've confirmed his assumed name as Yuma Kuga. Yuma was abducted from the Mikado District a few hours ago by what we've also confirmed to be the rebel forces, from Trion signatures left behind by their weapons. However, they were deactivated by the time of departure and their radio signals had been masked, so we were unable to track them immediately, but I have people working on it. And to our advantage, the recovery team discovered remnants of what we can assume to be Yuma's Trion in one of the corpses for further analysis."

Hyuse's interest was awakened at the last sentence. In everything surrounding the boy so far, Yuma had been a mystery that even the ranks of the Aftokratian military had difficulty following, so having something as valuable Trion samples from him was monumental.

"But that's to be discussed at a later date when we have solid results from the tests?" The person to Hyrein's left, a broad-shouldered man with bright red hair by the name of Ranbanein, asked a question despite already being almost sure he knew the answer. "For starters, it's not good for us if he's in rebellion hands."

"Right," Hyrein replied, the weight of the situation heavily present in his voice. "And while a retrieval operation is indeed vital, rushing things will only lead to an unwanted result."

"We still have eyes on their first base," Mira announced, "but they've yet to make a move and there's no evidence pointing to Yuma being sheltered there. As for other leads, though, this occurred extremely recently, but there was a radio exchange between them and the third base around thirty minutes ago, and we now have suspicion on that front."

"Were we able to get audio data?" Hyuse asked, remembering how the last traces of a signal from the rebels in Mikado could have easily been in the direction of their third base.

"As of now, no, we barely picked up the signal in the first place." Mira glanced at the screen in front of her to be sure of her statement. "It was through a private communications channel, which tells us it was important enough for them to go to that trouble, but we have a Galopoula team working on it. Multiple of their strategists consider the possibility of heavy value.

Explained or not," Mira kept talking after a pause, to assure nobody wanted to add anything, "base three should also be considered a probable target. We've already made preparations to assure none of their actions will go unseen."

"And we can't afford to spread manpower to monitor them anymore than this, with everything else going on," Ranbanein said, leaning back in his chair. "Man, what bad timing!"

Hyrein rested a finger on the side of his head, his voice unchanging. "Regardless of the situation, we're to utilize what resources we have available. The death at the main gate earlier today that you've already heard about is also to be dealt with accordingly, but we can't afford to let a chance of obtaining Yuma slip away."

"What of the rebels' own conflict over him?" Hyuse spoke up despite the feeling in his stomach urging him not to, earning the attention constantly shifting within the room. "Only a couple of weeks ago, we were going over the possibility of a split in their organization. Trion signatures indicating small-scale battles were last picked up when Yuma's signature first started appearing, which seems far too timely to just be a coincidence."

"That's only speculation," Mira commented. "And while there _are_ multiple things pointing towards it, there's yet to be solid evidence. Planning around it would be too risky."

Hyrein seemed fairly interested, already having deduced where Hyuse's thoughts were headed but wanting to hear them aloud for himself. "...What are you implying, Hyuse?"

"Mira's right, the risks are great in number," Hyuse admitted, "would you still like me to continue?"

"Assume that the rebels are divided, then. About our objective with Yuma, what would you do?"

Hyuse was surprised. _Everyone_ was surprised - Hyrein was never one to 'assume' anything, and every action he took and order he gave was well thought out with careful planning. In the two years Hyuse had been directly under his command, there was never _any_ 'assuming'. "Right now, I wouldn't do anything," he informed the room. "Continue keeping an eye on them, of course, but I wouldn't make the first move. Assuming there's some kind of divide because of Yuma, both sides would know how valuable he is if he was worth splitting from their main force to try and obtain first. Just as we feel we do, they know they would have to act fast."

"You're suggesting to wait until they attack each other?"

Hyuse hesitated. "...Yes. Whittling their own military down from the inside would either get rid of one side entirely or considerably weaken both of them, making it easier for us to attack one or the other, both, even, if that would be necessary - though I doubt it will. Half the organization could be finished before Aftokrator has to lift a finger."

Hyuse's words tasted sour on his tongue, and he had to force himself not to choke on them. Hyrein's expression had changed, the entire resting mood in the room had changed, and it made the air feel much, much thicker.

"Oh please, as if that's not obvious," Enedora scoffed, resting his chin on the back of his hand. "And even if it wasn't, letting those monkeys beat each other up before attacking them ourselves is a coward's move. Our military could be cut in half and we'd still have no problem dealing with all of them at once."

"I don't think you understand _our_ situation, then." Hyuse maintained a level voice. "Not only is that stupid and inaccurate enough, but you continue to underestimate the enemy."

"Oh, do I? Do they seem stronger to a _weakling_?"

 _Bastard_.

"Lord Hyuse is probably correct," a new voice contributed from the far end of the table, older than the rest. "And if we _are_ able to prove that rebel soldiers are turning against each other, it's likely that we very well might not have to participate in any battle against them before retrieving Yuma."

"You as well, Councilor Viza?" Mira looked from Hyuse to the elder man. "While it's indeed a logical approach, I see too many uncertain factors."

"My faith is on the certainty that all of this has to happen within a certain time period. We'll know very soon how they're faring, so my suggestion would be to wait until then before moving. I can't imagine it being any longer than a week."

"Either way, I think taking rash action now is a bad idea," Hyuse reaffirmed. "We and the rebellion alike aren't the only ones running out of time, and since they're the ones with Yuma, they're going to be forced to act first. Lord Viza predicted a week at most, and I agree that we'll have an answer as to whether or not they're fighting each other within that time frame. If they've made no movement to suggest their division after a week, we start playing our cards."

The concern of running everything under a strict time limit showed in Hyrein's expression. "And neither of you think a week is too long to wait?"

They exchanged a brief glance before both nodding to their superior, Hyuse being thankful for the support of the respected figure that Viza was. "And if our theories on them being split are correct," the younger soldier said, "I can confidently say it's likely that one side will launch an attack far before the seventh day."

"If things go to shit because we waited too long, it's _you_ I'm blaming," Enedora snapped, tapping his foot impatiently as he pointed at Hyuse, whose mouth had twisted into a scowl he gave up on concealing.

"That won't happen," he shot back, articulating his words as if that would allow them easier passage through Enedora's thick skull. "If anything would be absolutely certain to end badly, it's attacking their bases now."

"That much is true," Hyrein responded before Enedora thought of a reply of his own. "But we act when we've confirmed the rebels' status and Yuma's location, which could be any time between tonight and one week from now. If nothing happens before then, we're to use what information we do have and devise a new plan before it's too late. Make it clear to the remainder of our forces that _nobody_ is permitted to do anything unless instructed otherwise by myself or a superior carrying my direct orders." Hyuse could've sworn he saw the captain side-eye Enedora as he said that.

"That's all, then? We're gonna wait it out for a week?" Ranbanein rested his hands behind his head. "If that's it, we're dismissed, right?"

"...Yes, you're dismissed," Hyrein told him, though following up with a final order. "But first, go inform the surveillance teams they're to continue watching the bases they've been assigned."

"Right, captain, sir."

Hyuse waited a second after him to ask permission to excuse himself, before standing and brushing the wrinkles from his cloak. It had had grabbed his windpipe, getting tighter, tighter, tighter with every word that left his mouth, and when he stopped speaking it was already over before he realized it. Hyuse knew what he'd said had been quite obvious, that the rebellion was far weaker divided, but he hadn't said it thinking of the rebels. He had other intentions. Nobody aside from Hyrein showed any signs of realizing that, but the captain's interpretation was all Hyuse wanted - rather, all Hyuse _needed_.

When he'd described the weakness within a divided organization, he hadn't been talking about the rebellion at all.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Yay, things concerning Yuma and Jin revealed this chapter! I'm looking forward to writing Jin's backstory as well as going into more detail with Yuma's, but seems you guys'll have to wait for that~!**

 **Wow, though, it feels like it's been a bit since any Aftokrator characters showed up, so I was happy to write them (read: Hyuse) again. Hyuse was playing sneaky in that meeting, using the human rebels' situation to actually describe... wait, what was he actually describing? Do you know? Hyrein does!**


	13. The Time Behind Closed Eyes

"...See, you've been asleep for fifty years."

Yuma's mind didn't allow itself to absorb the words right away. For a few seconds, he only stared at the group of people in front of him with a blank face, his complexion barely distinguishable from the color of his hair. Fifty years.

Fifty. Years.

He repeated it in his head time and time again, each loop of the phrase becoming louder, louder, louder and growing in intensity. His breathing sped up in sync with it, Yuma helpless as his lungs ached with each sharp, quick intake of air that was out of his power to calm. That was impossible, it had to be impossible. Fifty years was impossible.

"Yuma?" Jin said his name gently, sounding far too careful as he looked down at the shorter boy that couldn't meet his eyes. He was looking for a response, Yuma realized, but the thought of forcing out words made his head throb.

"...You're lying, right?" Yuma said at last, even surprising himself with the quietness of his voice. Was he in denial? Or was he yet to truly hear what Shinoda had said, and at some point in the near future would suddenly realize it without warning? He dreaded the moment.

"We know this is... heavy, so don't feel obligated to respond to everything right away," Shinoda told him, avoiding stating whether it was a lie or not, though Yuma already knew. "You were put under something similar to cryosleep after what we've established was around four years after the Neighbors declared war, so about fifty years before the current time."

"Cryosleep?" Yuma parroted, wincing at how his voice sounded trying to force words out. The term sounded familiar, but details around it slipped his mind. "Th... That's when people are...?"

"Forced into a hibernation-like state using cold temperature," Shinoda clarified. "Though I say 'similar to' because of the lack of temperature control used. The state you were in for fifty years was similar to the state one would be in inside cryosleep, so I find things easier to just relate it to that, but the one vital difference was that you weren't put to sleep using temperature - instead, it was Trion."

Yuma hardly knew anything about the mysterious 'Trion' substance Shinoda had mentioned before, but he did know that it was the cause behind his otherwise unexplainable abilities. And now, it was apparently what kept him asleep for half a century. "How is that possible?" He asked, trying to give the impression that he knew more about Trion's structure and uses than he really did.

"That's something we're also trying to figure out," Shinoda admitted, almost sounding apologetic. "And since we were only able to locate where you had been after you woke up - there were no visible reactions on any radars otherwise - there hasn't been much time to look into it. It seems whoever built the system manipulated Trion to preserve a body without killing it, halting both physical and mental aging. We also have reason to believe the side effects of being exposed to raw Trion for such a long amount of time changed your appearance somewhat, based off of the few records of your previous life we could find. The white hair is probably a result of that, if accurate, as well as your younger appearance."

Yuma narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean, 'younger appearance'? D-Do you know how old I am? Or, was? Am?"

"Fifteen," Shinoda said, "according to the file on you we found - Jin can help you look through that after this, by the way. It's not much, and large pieces of data were lost, but it's still information."

 _Fifteen. I don't look fifteen, do I?_

"This was all experimental technology," Shinoda continued, "so naturally, there were a lot of risks involved. A human body preserved in Trion for fifty years isn't going to come out unchanged, and that's-that's where we see your abilities. At some point over the years, because of unknown causes, Trion entered your system and started altering your body even while unconscious. Though, there is the matter of..." He stopped to rethink. "Right, as I already said, humans don't possess Trion glands, yet the substance itself is still present in you. In people like Jin, an entirely separate network of vein-like passageways is connected to the Trion gland because of Trion's incompatibility with human blood, and in Neighbors, the gland is connected through many of the same veins that carry normal blood. What we see in you, however, is a human body carrying Trion in the same passageways as blood."

"This is probably part of the reason you can't activate any abilities at will," Jin contributed. "Right now, it's the 'fight' end of a fight or flight instinct that's linked itself to the Trion in your body, so it's only brought forward to be used when your brain sends a panicked signal to your body when you 'die', or are fatally injured. Ideally, though, there's safe ways to work around this problem and eventually eliminate it altogether."

"And what does that mean?" Yuma pushed himself to speak again, stepping back and forth between wanting to know the truth and wanting to be protected from it. "I can't activate anything because you said Trion was incontab-incob- _incompatible_ with human blood?"

"Yes," Shinoda's clasped hands tensed over the table, "fairly incompatible with the human body as a whole, really. It takes of years of alterations and building up an immunity for anyone to be able to survive with Trion in their system, though luckily, the amount that had been seeping into you over the fifty year period seems to have been only steadily increasing as time passed, which created some sort of resistance to it since you survived."

"It's indeed a miracle that you _did_ make it through those years," Jin added, surprising Yuma by speaking so suddenly, "but that doesn't mean you're out of the woods quite yet. We were so desperate to get you to Tamakoma as soon as possible because, obviously, you're still filled with a great deal of Trion and without a Trion gland. It's strange already that you've been able to stay active for two weeks, but we wanted to find you before anything drastic happened."

"That... that 'something drastic', that would be what?" Yuma cursed himself as soon as the words left his mouth.

 _Shut_ up _already, for your own sake_ , he willed himself silently, but he wasn't dedicated enough to the command to quiet himself.

So he wouldn't.

Jin and Shinoda looked at each other for a moment, then everyone else looked from person to person around the table before eyes became committed to Yuma. Either committed to Yuma or committed to avoiding his gaze, there was nothing in between the two.

Shinoda was the one that answered him in Jin's place. "...As I said earlier, speaking of the Neighbors' Trion experiments, the survival rates were very low - that was due to the foreign presence of Trion within the victims. Humans are incapable of handling the chemical construction of it, and eventually it begins working almost like an acid, steadily deconstructing-"

"Wait," Yuma halted him when he'd heard enough, and it wasn't until then he realized that he'd been biting the inside of his mouth hard enough to taste copper. "Y-You're... you're not saying that-" he stopped for a shaky breath, "-that I'm..."

He couldn't bring himself to say it aloud.

It wasn't real if he didn't say it.

Shinoda's face was surprisingly soft for the aura he gave off. "We're doing everything in our power to keep that from happening, and as far as that power goes, it's not going to."

"Are you alright, Yuma?" The woman with the ponytail, whom Yuma had earlier guessed to be Yuri, spoke to him in a motherly tone. Being met with the hollow, sheet-pale face at the end of the table, however, prompted her to turn to Shinoda instead of waiting for Yuma. "He can go now, right? That's enough for today, he's still only a child."

 _I don't want to know any more. I can't hear it. So why do I want to stay?_

There were still questions. Questions that Yuma kept telling himself he couldn't bear to hear the answers to, but questions that wouldn't leave him alone until he did.

He thought too much, realizing that _someone_ had to have put him asleep in the first place. Even while his memories were as barren of names as they were of everything else before he woke up, he was interested in knowing if there was any particular person responsible.

And if they were still alive.

"Yes, that's about enough, you've the right to dismiss yourself now if you'd like," Shinoda agreed with Yuri, then nodding to Jin. "You'll continue to stay in the infirmary for the next few days just to be cautious, but I'll have Jin show you the room you'll use after that anyways. If you have any further questions, though, feel free to ask."

 _How long do I have?_

"I-I don't."

 _Who the hell did it?_

"Thank you for your time, then," Shinoda bid him farewell, then adding, "and take as long as you need to recover."

"Thank-thank you as well," Yuma replied with a partial dip of his head, while Jin was more cheerful about saying his temporary goodbyes. The blurriness clouding Yuma's head quickly reached his eyes as well, and as he felt the smooth turning of the wheelchair the doors opened, and before he knew it he was greeted with a face of cooler air.

The doors closed behind them without Jin having to do anything, though Yuma barely heard them as his mind failed in sorting itself out. Everything was blank behind his eyes, and he stared forward at nothing in particular as Jin upheld the silence. He wasn't feeling the kind of utter shock he presumed he should have felt - any kind of emotion that _was_ present refused to identify itself, resulting in a sense of complete emptiness that tore at Yuma more than any kind of shock could. His chest and throat were painfully tight, only small, insufficient amounts of air going through his nostrils in short breaths that brought some color back to Yuma's white face, though not in the way he would have wanted. If Jin noticed, he said nothing of it.

"Can you speak?" Jin finally asked, by then having already reached the elevator and waiting for its arrival. Yuma's lips were dry as they parted, words absent from his thoughts for a few moments before he responded.

"Yes," he answered simply, his voice raspy from the lack of air. "I'll..." He coughed mid-sentence. "...I'll be alright." That wasn't a lie, more like a desperate phrase he choked out trying to convince himself of as much as he was Jin.

"Don't worry about it too much," Jin sighed after thinking for a second, and Yuma could feel him putting more of his weight on the back of the wheelchair as he walked. "I know you're untrustworthy of us, but at least believe me in saying that Director Shinoda was telling the truth when he said we're willing to go to the lengths of our power to make sure you _will_ be alright. So for the time being, try to enjoy yourself a little, even if that seems hard. Tamakoma has good people, Yuma, and none of them are going to let you go without a fight."

"Really?" Yuma's voice held one consistent, lifeless pitch as his gaze fell on the floor before him, counting the number of scuffs in the surface. He considered saying more, but no words followed.

He couldn't see it, but Jin's expression wasn't pitying him like Yuri's or even Shiori's, and all that resonated on his face was kindness towards Yuma and the willingness to - as much as Yuma found it strange to admit - help him. He seemed so different now in comparison to Yuma's first impression of the man, and while that was yet to fade from his mind, Yuma was already subconsciously reconsidering his interpretation.

"I think you'll make it," Jin said suddenly, steadily letting the elevator carry him and Yuma to the ground level after stepping inside. "Your body got through fifty years, there's no way it's about to quit on you now, is it?"

Yuma almost said that he hoped so, but the words stopped themselves without a command. He wasn't certain they would be truth.

"...Perhaps."

Three days had come and gone completely, and almost through the fourth Osamu made his way down the base's twisting hallways with slightly more confidence than he had the first time he walked them. They were surprisingly easy to navigate once familiarized with, though due to the repetitive appearances it was just as easy to find oneself lost upon even one wrong turn, and Osamu would still commonly find himself wandering for more time than he should've been.

Every muscle in his body seemed to ache, but Osamu didn't particularly mind - it was evidence of effort, after all. Early on the morning of his second day, Osamu could recall being loudly awoken by Jin summoning him for training of various sorts, which he was hilariously unprepared for, and since then he had hardly been able to catch a break. Not that he could say he minded.

It was established quickly that Osamu's current physical capabilities gave him no acclimation to fighting whatsoever, even if one would exclude the fact that the first time he'd so much as _touched_ a weapon was when Jin handed him one in Mikado City, so Jin had suggested he take up a role outside of the thick of combat. This included things like medics and general operators or team operators, like Usami, and while the offer was easily the safer route, it wasn't what Osamu intended to do with his freedom. The moment he'd stepped foot out of Mikado, he'd been given a chance to fight back, and he was willing to risk the consequences if it meant making what he saw as the most of that chance. While the roles of non-combatants were undeniably just as important as those of their comrades out on the field, Osamu was determined to someday return home and fight for the occupants of Mikado, just as Jin had told him he could. He'd already made a vow to see his mother again, and Osamu believed himself prepared to make the sacrifices that would allow him to do that.

So he began the training of a rebellion soldier, and while he had been well aware that it would require in a great deal of physical and mental strain, that knowledge made the burden of exhaustion no lighter. At first he had been thankful that Jin was understanding of Osamu's situation and inexperience, but he quickly realized the seasoned fighter's idea of 'easing into training' was hardly any more forgiving than what Osamu had initially imagined the full-fledged process to be.

He stopped walking every now and again to rub his left shin, which Yotaro had kicked out from under him a bit too hard during a mock match. The child was certainly far from an elite, but there was no denying he held a great amount of potential and talent - enough to wipe the floor with Osamu in close combat, at least, and Yotaro wasn't about to let him live _that_ down anytime soon.

About half of the base's virtual training rooms were on the ground level in the area Osamu had met Chika in, though smaller ones could be found above them on the second floor of the base, branching off of teams' operating rooms. Konami had told Osamu that he was free to use her team's, which he had been informed was labeled 'Tamakoma-1' in reference to the base name, anytime he liked, but if he could help it he wouldn't want to risk getting in their way, thus he usually chose to use the rooms downstairs.

Meanwhile, Kuga was supposedly going to be able to leave his partial confinement in the infirmary that night, though Jin was skeptical of having him room with Osamu, or anyone else, for that matter. Osamu had reiterated several times that _he_ would be alright with it, but he was quick enough to realize that, given the circumstances, Kuga's comfort was above his and it would ultimately be up to the former to decide.

Osamu had gone to visit him daily, in which he'd fussily inquired about Kuga's health, and carefully avoided bringing up the event in Mikado City despite his pressing curiosity. He'd visited the white-haired boy the morning after Jin had interrupted their first meeting, and back then he couldn't help but notice the weird change in Kuga's mood - his voice sounded almost strained, and multiple times he'd asked Osamu to repeat what he said with an apologetic smile. Seeing the tired expression on Kuga's face, he hadn't stayed long, and couldn't bring himself to ask about it.

Apart from those visits, however, he hadn't seen Kuga much in the past few days at all. There were times Osamu had gone to his room looking for him and he hadn't been there, and nobody he'd met had mentioned talking with Kuga. Jin told Osamu that Kuga was approaching the training differently from him, which was reasonable, but even factoring that in he seemed to vanish far too often for it to be only training. Though Osamu couldn't manage to ask about that, either.

The sun had set a few hours ago and Osamu had already eaten before getting a few final matches with Yotaro in, and he stole one last glance out the windows as he waited for the elevator doors to open. The stars never failed to appear breathtaking over the blanket of night, but when Osamu looked outside, most often all he could see were the crumbling buildings thrown across the earth like discarded trash. They served as a cruel, immovable reminder of the Neighbor invasion fifty years ago, and of humanity's near extinction by their hands.

A high-pitched ' _ding_ ' caused Osamu to return from his inner thoughts, a signal informing him that the elevator had arrived. The upper half of it's back wall was almost entirely transparent glass, and after waiting another second for the doors to be opened completely, then stepping inside, he forced his eyes away from the remains that were barely recognizable as a former city.

His ascent upstairs was slow but not at all lengthy, and as he allowed the doors to open Osamu nodded to a somewhat familiar face intending to go downstairs. If he remembered, her name was Akane Hi-something, and the previous day Izuho had introduced them to each other briefly. Despite them not having spoken on any other occasion, the young girl seemed fairly kind and definitely lively, and was another friend of Chika's.

Passing Akane as she took his place inside the elevator, Osamu turned right, towards where the sleeping quarters were located on the far side of the second floor. As he made his way to the room he'd been assigned, Osamu crossed paths with several people walking through the hallways as he was, some of which he waved or nodded to as he did Akane. The residents of the base were quite welcoming and, according to Jin, few were suspicious of Osamu's abrupt arrival. He would even go as far to say the atmosphere was family-like, a feeling that lessened the burden of leaving Mikado City behind.

Osamu noticed that he'd begun to drag his feet, but did nothing to improve his walking rhythm. He made no efforts in stifling a yawn, and sluggishly rubbed his left eye from under his glasses with a tired hand. With each day, Osamu seemed to come out of training sessions even more drained than he had been the day before, and that night he was determined to fall asleep earlier than he had been, hence why he ate earlier than usual. The bed in his quarters was still unfamiliar and plagued him with homesickness when he considered it, but it was enough to carry Osamu to sleep after a long day - and sleep, at the moment, was the ruling occupant of his thoughts.

He walked past rows of other doors, most of which he was yet to learn the names of the soldiers behind. There were no passcode locks on the soldiers' quarters unlike rooms downstairs, though there was a locking mechanism from the inside if one wanted privacy, and a buzzer - quiet enough to not be irritating but loud enough to be noticeable - sounded when the door was being opened. Osamu pressed a thin gray button, glowing faintly with a small green light from behind it, to open the door, and slid his shoes off once inside.

Osamu caught sight of the digital clock attached to the wall parallel to his bed, reading 22:34. Sighing heavily, he switched on the light and uncovered the pyjamas (a simple sleeved shirt and soft pants, hardly worthy of being called 'pyjamas') he'd been supplied and slid into the more comfortable clothing, tempting him to sleep.

In the room was a single, metal-framed bunk bed against the right wall, extra blankets piled at the foot of the bottom bed for cold nights. Osamu was alone in the cramped room, which only housed the bunk, a small nightstand and desk, and a bathroom. Showers were a few hallways down on the same floor. The loneliness didn't disturb him much, but he would admit that having someone else to sleepily converse with during mornings and evenings sounded nice.

Pushing the blanket aside and gracelessly falling onto the bottom bed, Osamu's eyes slid closed without him having to order them. His mind and body were almost equally tired, welcoming the soft embrace of unconsciousness and trying to put aside the worries Osamu was yet to resolve.

And as much as he wished for an undisturbed sleep, it escaped him yet again.


	14. Dawn of Vermillion

The world was under smoke.

Unforgiving and thick, it forced itself down Osamu's throat as he struggled to breathe. Everything seemed blurred, and a deathly heat engulfed him as he lay halfway on the ground, his legs splayed out behind him. He felt a lead weight had been strapped across his back, and with one eye shut from the stinging of flying embers he took in his surroundings.

Flames flickered in countless patches dulled by the accompanying gray clouds, the agitated orange lights thrown about black-stained rubble continuing to crumble down from the places they once held within structures. There was a terrible stench sitting heavy in the air, stinging Osamu's nose and begging him to rather inhale more smoke by breathing through his mouth than bear it any longer. It smelled of copper.

 _Where am I?_ He thought in panic, struggling not to hyperventilate and waste the limited and rapidly decreasing amount of oxygen he had available. Jolts of pain relentlessly stabbed the bones in his arm as he attempted to support himself, gritting his teeth while his open eye darted around frantically.

With each time Osamu told himself to breathe, it seemed the breaths became shorter and more harmful than helpful. His ribs screamed at him to stop, though Osamu knew holding his breath would make it difficult to resume breathing with the rising amount of smoke invading the air.

 _Calm down, take a look around. Where the hell is this?_

Osamu couldn't recognize a thing about the area around him - everything had either been destroyed completely or was in the process of becoming so. The unfamiliar atmosphere sped up the already irregularly bouncing rate of his heartbeat, and somewhere within the several layers of thoughts running through his head Osamu was terrified of having no idea where he was.

Out of nowhere, the chaotic auditory mixture of crackling flames and falling buildings was erased by a long, flat screeching noise that made Osamu's breath stop dead in his throat. Involuntarily, he bit down hard on his lip, and despite feeling skin tear under his teeth he held them in place. The hand already being used to keep his chest off of the ground flew to his ear in an attempt to block out the noise, and Osamu hadn't realized his mistake until the right side of his jawline smacked against the stone below him. The bones in his face felt like they had been split, and barely being able to lift his head Osamu squinted at the scene directly in front of him.

 _A light?_

Not the fire's light, that was certain. Separated from him by a swirling wall of smoke, Osamu could see a pale green light, glowing consistently and calm in contrast with the fire surrounding it.

The noise was louder now.

 _"Osamu!"_

"Wh...Who...?" Was all he could get out. Every time he tried to speak, a cloud of smoke was coughed up in place of words.

 _Someone's here!_

Osamu's eyes went wider, hopeful as the pale light moved closer.

It moved with the rhythm of footsteps.

 _"Osamu!"_

The light came closer, and Osamu could only stare as the outline of a human form became visible behind it. Elbow scraping against the ground, he exposed his ear to the deafening noise around him and reached out a hand.

 _Am I saved?_

He noticed details beginning to appear as the glowing person walked closer, keeping a steady pace that appeared relaxed in front of their surroundings. They were small, short-haired, and baggy clothes stained with dark patches hung off of a childlike frame.

And then Osamu saw the face.

There was nothing present in the depths of their eyes, and they stared into Osamu's without a word. The person looked unbothered by whatever was unfolding around them, walking towards Osamu with no clear intention and with the strange light still coming from behind them. Osamu could make out the stains on their clothes as soot, and from his distance he realized that, with a sinking feeling in his stomach, blood was smeared across their cheek as if it were placed there by the delicate stroke of a brush.

It was Kuga.

"Osamu!"

Osamu's eyes flew open as he choked on a raspy gasp. He stretched his arm out above his head in the same moment, elbow cracking as the limb flew upwards. His face was drenched with sweat, and his chest trembled with heavy breaths coming and going.

 _It was a dream_.

He noticed immediately that the screeching noise hadn't stopped. It was more organized now, however, somewhat distinguishable, though that did nothing to soothe him.

"Hey, Osamu!"

Osamu's initial response to the voice froze his body in the shock of being spoken to so suddenly, and slowly lowering his arm he sat up in bed with a grunt to look at the speaker. His head was pounding.

"Hurry and get up, you sleep like a log!" Kuga hung upside-down from the top bunk, only his head visible from with what was probably the messiest hair Osamu had ever seen. His eyes were tired slits, blinking more often than one usually would, and they looked at Osamu paired with a sleepy pout.

One look at him, and the image from Osamu's dream flashed through his head.

Two looks, and his breath stopped.

Three, and he told himself it was ridiculous.

 _It was only a dream_.

"W-Wh-When d-did you get here?" Was all he managed to say, staring wide-eyed at Kuga's face, made blurry without Osamu's glasses.

 _Don't be stupid_.

 _It was just a dream_.

"A few hours ago while you were already asleep, Jin didn't tell you I was coming?" Yuma stared back, though he was looking confused for far different reasons. "Nevermind that, though, an alarm's been going off for like three minutes, so hurry up and get dressed-"

"An alarm?" Osamu's consciousness suddenly pulled itself awake, and he threw himself into a proper sitting position. The background noise was clearer now, and he realized that it was, indeed, an alarm. One that he'd supposedly slept through the first three minutes of. "Wait, what's going on?"

"No idea," Kuga replied, his voice muffled as he brought his head back up to the top bed. Osamu could hear him shuffling around in what sounded like multiple blankets, before watching him make his way down the thin gray ladder bringing him to the ground. "But I hear people running outside."

Osamu's eyes directed themselves to the clock: 5:02. 5:02 in the damn _morning_ , at that time the sun would barely be touching the horizon. He stumbled out of bed, tripping on the frame in the process and just saving himself from falling flat on his face with a startled yelp. Kuga, if he heard it, didn't acknowledge him and went about pulling a hoodie - a new one, different from the torn one he'd had in Mikado City - over a sleeved pyjama shirt, and shifted around in a bag for a more presentable pair of pants.

Osamu rushed around making himself decent as well, grabbing his glasses from the nightstand and looking around the room for the spot he'd thrown the trainee jacket Jin gave him. His heart thumped in his chest, but he convinced himself not to ask Kuga any questions, assuming he didn't know any more than Osamu did, and to focus on seeing for himself what was going on as soon as possible.

 _This isn't happening. It's so soon._

Hopping on one foot as he tried to put a boot over his other one, Osamu heard the sound of the door sliding open, and angled his neck to see Kuga waiting for him while standing halfway out of the room. Not bothering to buckle his boots properly, with a mind spiraling fast into chaos Osamu ungracefully followed Kuga into the hallway and watched the him press the button to close it.

The alarm was drastically louder outside of the small room, and Osamu fought the urge to cover his ears. He could hear the unorganized sound of footsteps Kuga had pointed out, though the corridor the two of them were in was already deserted. Kuga picked up the pace.

 _Do they do drills here? Right, it has to be a drill or something. We're safe. We have to be safe_.

Osamu wasn't thinking anything of the half-run Kuga led him at, his mind was busy arguing with itself and desperately shoveling its way down into the hole of denial. He remembered, on the day he'd arrived at the base, Yotaro telling him that he'd showed up at a 'good time.' Seeing evidence of anything else, frankly, was no less than terrifying.

"Osamu!" The voice of his companion kept him from spacing out, and before Osamu could respond Kuga had grabbed his wrist and was pulling him into a hallway he spotted other people heading down. "We should follow them," he suggested, looking over his shoulder. "Until we know where we _should_ be, at least. If you see someone you know, ask them what's going on."

"L-Let's do that," Osamu agreed, and considered asking why it would be necessary to await a familiar face, though by the time he did Kuga was already looking forwards again while continuing to pull Osamu along. It couldn't matter very much, could it? Someone, _anyone_ , giving them a description of the situation could just as easily prove to be for worse as it could better, but for his own good Osamu was willing to bet on the latter possibility.

The weight of fear hung heavy in the air as Osamu heard his shoes slap against the cold floor beneath him. Kuga hadn't said anything to him since he'd proposed following other soldiers, but if the way he carried himself said anything accurate, he was leaps and bounds calmer than Osamu. Or, he _was_ just as worried, but was more skilled at withholding any visible signs of it - either way, compared to Osamu it was still enviable.

 _We're fine, right? We're fine. Nothing's happening_.

"Oh, Yuma!"

Osamu stopped, hearing a familiar voice from behind him, and Kuga did the same. In relief, he released the breath he hadn't been aware he was holding and moved to confirm the newcomer's identity.

"Four-Eyes, too?" Jin appeared around the corner with a nonchalant expression, his casual attitude comforting in the confusion of the situation. Before, that is, Osamu remembered that if Jin was the same now as he was in Mikado City, he was _always_ like that, even in the heat of combat. It was a short-lived comfort, but he was thankful for it.

"Thank goodness I found you two quickly," Jin continued, scratching his head with a smile, "I don't presume anyone's really explained yet, though? Both of you just woke up?"

 _Do I look tired?_ The thought crossed Osamu's mind, and he felt a sudden regret that he hadn't bothered to behold his appearance, no matter how trivial it seemed. "Er, yeah, the alarm woke us up, and no, nobody's explained anything..." Osamu shook his head, trying to imitate Jin's cool aura. "Kuga and I were going to follow some other soldiers until we found someone we knew. Jin, you're..." He coughed on purpose. "What's happening?"

"Are we being attacked?"

Kuga spoke next, not waiting for Jin's answer. Osamu only gaped at him as he processed his words, and even Jin looked a bit surprised at the straightforwardness, but both of them were met with a completely honest expression. Did Kuga genuinely have no problem asking that? Wasn't he _scared_?

Jin didn't say anything at first, his mouth slightly open in an uncertain smile, but then broke into a laugh that drew both Osamu and Yuma's attention. "Are we being-?" He stopped mid-sentence to return from his weirdly amused voice, smiling at the boys in front of him. "Well, it might be a bit nerve-racking when you put it like that, but- er, should I just say yes? Yes." Jin, contrary to his comment about nerve-racking phrasing, made it sound unusually normal.

Osamu fell silent.

His subconscious was already expecting that, though from the moment he'd woken up he'd been convincing himself it wasn't. He _knew_ when he left Mikado that this kind of thing was bound to happen, but back then he'd had no means of pinpointing how soon it would, and as a result Osamu's body was drowned in a wash of fear. The kind of fear that wasn't entirely in one's head, that existed there as well as in the form of a physical feeling, with a sickening grasp on his lungs and jolts coming in waves whenever he thought too hard.

"It's the Neighbors?" Osamu leaned forward, sweat forming on his now-white face. "How many? Is it bad?"

Jin eyes went from Yuma to Osamu, still possessing a neutral expression. "Neighbors? Well, there's more out here than just the Neighbors-"

Osamu tensed.

"-and as for numbers? Probably a few units based on the guards' estimates, but we should be able to handle it fine."

Kuga took a step forward with narrowed eyes, silencing Osamu and speaking in his place. "Attacking an entire base with only a few units? That's rather bold, are you sure?"

Jin shook his head, idly adjusting the sunglasses atop his head. "It might seem so, but I wouldn't underestimate them. They know our strength just as well as we know theirs, and they wouldn't send a force that wasn't capable of completing their mission. You might as well assume they're all ace combatants, and have a specific goal in mind - if they wanted a huge battle, there'd be more."

"Who's ' _they_?'" Osamu's voice became a little louder, stepping forward himself to be ahead of Kuga again. He kept thinking back to something Jin said to him a few days ago, something he'd carelessly allowed to slip his mind in the midst of everything else, but was trying to make his mind let it slip again. Understanding was far more draining than ignorance.

 _That's impossible. It has to be something else._

 _But why isn't Kuga asking him about it?_

Jin didn't say anything, and dipping his head, his allowed his gaze to meet Osamu's. Was his look one of apology?

Osamu held his tongue. _I'm_ _tired of having to wait for answers every time I want to know something_ , he wanted to say, _I have a right to understand what's going on_.

"Both of you can come with me," Jin said quickly, overshadowing Osamu's question and provoking a frown from him. "I'd like to secure your safety; Yuma's still vulnerable and Four-Eyes is a trainee." He gestured with his index finger, turning halfway around with his other hand in a pocket.

"Where are we going?" Kuga asked Jin as the man put his back to them completely, glancing over his shoulder to assure the two he was still listening. Shortly after the question left him Yuma followed carefully as Jin moved down the hallway, passing Osamu and leaving him with hardly any choice but to go along with whatever Jin's intention was.

"There's a shelter underground," Jin replied, pausing for a moment at intersecting hallways, then continuing to go straight. As a surprised Kuga opened his mouth to pose another question, he added, "People who aren't familiar with this place are unlikely to stumble across it, and it's one of the safest areas in the base, designed for large-scale attacks and bombings. Of course the circumstances aren't anywhere near that extreme, but it's difficult for enemies to get down there without unintentionally giving people some sort of forewarning, let alone find it all the way past soldiers' quarters, so you've no need to worry."

Kuga thought to himself before saying anything, Osamu waiting for his response as much as Jin. "I didn't ask because of worry," he clarified first, "I was curious. And what's threatening to this place enough to make it necessary for Osamu and I to hide underground?"

" _Threatening_? It's not something like a matter of life or death, right?" Osamu said hesitantly, trying to ignore the shaky breathing obviously disturbing his speech. "You have the situation under control...?"

Jin laughed again, only further unsettling Osamu despite the friendliness in which he did so, and grinned as he put his hands behind his head. "I hope so!"

"You _hope_ so?"

"Just stay out of the action," Jin advised casually, _too_ casually, "and I'll explain everything later."

 _Later, later, 'I'll explain everything later'_ , Osamu mimicked Jin's voice in his head, sighing. Four days had to have been 'later' enough, and the longer he went without a proper explanation the more frustrating it became. "...And what of Chika?" He brought himself to ask, about the girl whose presence was _still_ yet to be explained. "Where is she?"

Jin looked at him as if the answer was common knowledge. "As a full combatant she'll be on the field, of course."

"As in, _fighting_?"

"You already knew that she's a soldier, didn't you?"

"I... Yeah, but..." Osamu _had_ known, since day one, but that didn't make it seem any more realistic. "You're sure she'll be okay?"

Jin raised an eyebrow questioningly, but still kept a smile. "Chika's quite capable of taking care of herself, you know. She'll be fine."

"Yeah..." Osamu narrowed his eyes, trying to shake off the concern. _If Jin thinks so, I shouldn't be worried. He's right. Not to mention Chika's more experienced than I am_.

Osamu stopped himself from questioning anything as Jin took him and Kuga past an elevator and later the closed door to a flight of stairs, though he exchanged confused glances with his recent friend, now walking next to him. They were moving quickly and, under the sound of the alarm that felt it would be ever-present, Osamu didn't want to slow them down with another moment of confusion.

"Here," Jin stopped at a wall, on the floor before him a scarred metal hatch that had to be twisted open. "Since we're on the second floor, you've got to go down a ladder until reaching ground level, but there's stairs at that point. You open the shelter door same as you would this one, though it's heavier and might take the two of you."

"You're staying up here, then?" Osamu asked the obvious, feeling foolish after he did, but that didn't stop Jin from answering him as if it were a serious question.

"Of course," he confirmed cheerfully, making Osamu's ears burn in embarrassment. "I've got duties to attend to, but rest assured, there are already other people in there. It's where operators go if their strategy rooms are in any danger, and trainees, too, so they don't get hurt."

 _That's good to hear, at least_ , Osamu said to himself, nodding to show he understood. Kuga stayed quiet, but watched as Jin forced the tunnel entrance open with little trouble.

 _But I can't help but keep wondering who - or what, even - on Earth is attacking us? At five in the morning, no less! Why won't Jin tell me?_

"Stay down there until things are clear," Jin instructed, moving a couple steps towards Osamu and Kuga. "You're both alright?"

 _It can wait_ , Osamu told himself. _I'll be sure to ask Jin about it later_. "We'll be fine," he said aloud, having looked at Kuga for approval before speaking for him.

"Take care of each other," Jin responded jokingly, but Osamu decided he'd follow through with the order anyway. "Down you go, then, I'll find you later!"

As Osamu was about to say his own version of a goodbye, Kuga brushed past him and then Jin, lowering his foot onto the first metal peg. He didn't seem necessarily confident, but was definitely closer to it than Osamu was, with a, "Let's go, Osamu."

"Right..." Osamu watched as Kuga searched for a reliable grip, starting to move downwards without any sort of inquiring comments. How was he so calm? Didn't he understand what was going on? Perhaps he understood it far better than Osamu did, he considered, but that only introduced a whole new set of questions for Kuga _and_ Jin.

The first thing Osamu noticed was, thankfully, that the sound of the alarm was notably quieter from inside. The ladder was cold and rough on his hands, and each time his foot almost slipped from a peg Osamu felt lightning in his stomach. The space was compact, about a foot wider than Osamu's shoulder width, and there were caged lights along the wall to his right that allowed him to see where he was grabbing. The vibration of Jin closing the door above him shook the tiny passageway, and Osamu held the bar tighter until the ladder became steady again. Kuga continued descending.

 _So this is it?_ Osamu found himself thinking, less concerned about falling after the first five steps or so. _We're going to hide? ...No, it's logical for Kuga to, he's probably not in top shape yet, but am I...? I can't even do anything?_ With a fresh burst of nervousness, Osamu's mind drifted back to Chika as his hand nearly missed the peg his foot had been on several seconds earlier. _I'm not saying she can't protect herself, but what if something bad happens? And I wasn't there? That won't happen, will it? Jin said the situation was under control... wait, no, he said he hoped it was under control. Dammit._

"Osamu! Is something wrong?"

"Wha-? Oh!" The sound of Kuga's voice led Osamu to realize he'd stopped going down a few steps from the ground, and with a glance below him saw that Kuga was already standing on a gray landing before the stairs began, looking up with confusion draped on his face. "Sorry about that, I'm-"

He never finished.

The noise sounded like an echo of the loudest sound Osamu had ever heard, or what he imagined an explosion would sound like if someone covered it with a massive bowl. It reached his ears with no warning, and held stiff with fear his hands never made an attempt to cover them, keeping him upright for another moment. The entire tunnel shook violently, and a loud gasp escaped Osamu's throat as he was thrown from the ladder, his shoulder briefly contacting a corner before the rest of him met the floor. The walls had widened out where he was, so those on the landing could stand properly, but it had to be somewhere around a three-meter fall at an awkward angle to boot, and he hit the ground with a sharp taste in his mouth.

Kuga lost his balance and stumbled against the wall left to the ladder, and was only a step away from falling down the staircase Jin said would be there, but managed to stay on his feet. He stayed in that position until the rumbling ceased, limbs firmly planted against the wall and floor, while Osamu instinctively covered his head in fear of falling materials having come loose.

He felt blood pooling in his mouth as pain seared from his lower back to the rest of his body, and in pinpointing the source Osamu realized how dangerously close he had been to landing directly on his tailbone. He shut his eyes as if that would somehow make the trembling walls around him freeze in place as they had been. He couldn't focus any energy on estimating how long it went on for, but the sound gradually began to fade before stopping altogether, taking the shaking with it.

Using his hands to raise his upper body from the floor, Osamu coughed up droplets of the thick red liquid in his mouth, the entire right half of it plagued with a burning sensation that slapped his nerves the second he tried moving any muscles around it. He wouldn't dare use the tip of his tongue to feel for what he thought had happened, he could already tell he'd bitten right through the inside of his cheek upon impact.

"K-Kuga...?"

It hurt to talk.

"Kuga! Are you okay?"

Osamu was surprised to see that Kuga was still standing, and not only that, but seemed physically unharmed. Kuga himself looked just as surprised by Osamu's state, moving over to him in a couple of steps and kneeling down, his eyes firstly noticing the blood at the corner of Osamu's lips. "I could ask you the same thing," he said with angled brows, looking for anything else that seemed out of place. "Did you hurt anything when you fell? Your mouth?"

"I bit my cheek by accident, but it'll be fine," Osamu told him, doing all he could to ignore the sickening texture of torn flesh inside his mouth as he spoke. "Apart from that, I don't think anything's damaged... it hurts where I hit the ground, naturally, though it can't be major... Do you know-Wh... What _was_ that?"

"Sounded like an explosion," Kuga guessed, "probably on this side of the base, too. Can you walk?"

"Can I-? Aren't you worried about it?"

"It's not our job to deal with it," Kuga said, shrugging. "And besides, Jin said the shelter was designed to withstand that kind of thing, so we'll be fine."

 _Is he serious?_ "I-It's not about us! What if the base is in trouble?"

"Even if we _wanted_ to, neither of us could really fight," Kuga declared, shaking his head. "I bet it hasn't even been ten minutes, yet you're already assuming the worst. If you're truly concerned, I can say I'm confident they're going to be fine." Without letting Osamu argue, he offered him his hand. "Come on, we're still going."

Osamu didn't protest, he knew it was likely to end up in a dead-end conversation, and he _wanted_ to have solid faith in the rebel soldiers. However Kuga was seeing the world was something else, something difficult for Osamu to wrap his head around.

He took Kuga's hand and unsteadily brought himself to his feet, not expecting the coldness of the other boy's palm. The spot on his back where Osamu had landed _ached_ as he stood up, but he tried not to make it visible as Kuga looked at him once more before turning to face the stairs.

Osamu could already picture the stain of a bruise on his back, and considering that, stairs did _not_ sound appealing. Preferable to having to climb down another ladder, but far from appealing.

 _Kuga's right, they have to be fine. I'm sure they're used to this kind of thing_.

 _I'm sure_.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Poor Osamu, already having nightmares... I think watching Kuga "die" is going to affect him for awhile, hence his appearance in the dream, but once Osamu has a better understanding of Kuga's ability that particular scar should shallow out a bit.**

 **As for the main content of the chapter, Tamakoma's under attack so soon! Who is it? What do they want? I'll repeat "poor Osamu" here again, his first injury coming from falling off a ladder. Not that it doesn't hurt like hell, though, so double thumbs-up to him for toughing it out.**

 **Oh, and my apologies for being a day late on the update! My laptop's in repair right now and was supposed to be done last Friday (even now, I'm still without it lol), and unfortunately computer access was limited. ;-; Hopefully I'll be ready to go on time for the next chapter!**


	15. Closed Doors Behind Closed Doors

"Koogah! Ah you _laughih_ at me? Ish not funny! Thish ish sherioush!"

"As 'serious' as your marshmallow cheek gets, right. Definitely serious."

"Ish not like I can helph it!"

"Fair enough, but you still look totally ridiculous."

Osamu was well aware of that fact, and he stopped himself from arguing back due to his voice sounding equally ridiculous at the moment. A couple of fat cotton balls were occupying most of the space on the right side of his mouth, pressing against the flesh he'd torn open, and were intended to stop the bleeding. Not only did it make his cheek look like a balloon, but it made it difficult to talk without getting a few laughs from the people within earshot. He had also been instructed by a medically trained soldier in the shelter to keep an ice pack on the outside of that cheek, and while sticking his tongue out at Kuga (who was only further amused by the action), Osamu put the pack back in place with a lazy hand. Kuga smiled at him.

Trainees and soldiers either restricted from fighting or not able to were scattered about the underground room, and Osamu could sense the unease radiating off of some just as well as he could the calmness off of others. Few noises slipped through the floor above them, which was just as comforting as it was terrifying, not giving Osamu any idea how the battle aboveground was progressing.

Yotaro was with them as well, too young for serious combat, and he was mostly complaining to Osamu and Kuga about Jin having forbid him from fighting, then complaining to his dog - yes, _dog_ \- when both of them took Jin's side, though Osamu was more interested in the dog over what Yotaro had been saying. He'd never seen one before, and proof of their survival was fascinating. In Mikado City, those who were born before the war claimed the people of fifty years ago once kept them as 'pets', as strange as it sounded, but the animals were driven outside when the fighting began and later barred from entering the Neighbors' cities. Osamu still found it hard to believe a species strong enough to survive in the outside world without the kind of resources humans had could be domesticated so easily, but one look at Yotaro's, Raijin-maru, told him that dogs weren't nearly as dangerous as they seemed to be. That particular one wasn't, at least.

Osamu groaned, resting his head on the wall behind him. Worry pooled in his head for those involved in the fighting above, Chika and Jin among them, and swirling possibilities of who their enemy could be plagued him. Jin wouldn't even tell Osamu if the force was Neighbors or not, which, from his standpoint, gave him enough reason to assume they _weren't_. He recalled his conversation with Jin a few days ago, when the man had been guiding him to Kuga's room for the first time. That conversation had kept Osamu's mouth shut even when he'd had an opportunity to ask more, and now, when the topic of non-Neighbor foes _finally_ became relevant again, Jin refused to say anything.

 _'There are people after Kuga, and those people won't hesitate to torture anyone they believe may know something,'_ Jin had said. _'And if the majority of our own don't know about the truth behind Kuga, there's a smaller chance of them getting captured because of him.'_

 _Who the hell is it?_ Osamu mused in his head impatiently, looking up at the ceiling. _No way is it_ really _other humans, right? Why would people be fighting each other when Neighbors are a threat to all of them? What Jin said shouldn't make any sense._

The thought stopped itself as Osamu's eyes came back into focus, seeing a hand waving in front of his face as if trying to bring him back from a trance. Kuga leaned in front of him, face wearing a pout, and Osamu jumped at the sudden realization he was so close.

"Are you alright?" He asked once Osamu's expression had cleared, stepping back. "You look like you're troubled."

"...Just worried," Osamu decided to say, removing the cotton balls from his mouth before he spoke and wincing from the taste as it touched his tongue. He decided more of them wouldn't be necessary and tossed them into a conveniently placed trash bin, talking to Kuga as he did. "I know I should be confident in the others, but that's... _hard_ when I don't even know what they're fighting."

Kuga shrugged. "That's reasonable, of course, but it's not like you knowing what's attacking the base is going to change the outcome or anything."

"Wh-? I _suppose_ you're right, if I don't do anything, that is, but that'd... I'd feel terrible, just sitting on the side."

"You feel guilty because you have to stay down here, then?" Kuga sounded confused, squinting at Osamu with his hands in his pockets. "If I must be blunt, Osamu, you started combat training less than a week ago. You'd die if you were put on the field now, and then you _really_ wouldn't be able to do anything, so don't bother wasting your life in a battle you can't fight right now."

"Who says I wouldn't be able to do anything?" Osamu muttered, not certain if Kuga heard him. "There's more involved in a battle than brute fighting strength," he said at an audible level, "and I'm sure I could, at the very least, somehow make myself useful."

Kuga shook his head, sighing. "You don't even have to be _fighting_ , one step up there is pointlessly putting your life in danger."

"And how would you know?"

"It's common sense, Osamu."

"Even if you think it is, I..." He narrowed his eyes, lowering them from meeting Kuga's. "Maybe it is. But it still feels wrong."

"At this point I can't even remember if I've told you this before, but you're _really_ weird," Kuga said nonchalantly, and he looked to Osamu as he added, "Focus on keeping yourself safe, and the others will do the same for themselves."

 _He had to survive outside on his own for half a month, so of course that would seem most logical to him_... "You're not even concerned about what we're being attacked by?"

"Jin hasn't told me any more than he's told you, if you think _I_ would know," Kuga affirmed first, only then answering Osamu's question. "And he has to tell us at some point, so I'll leave being concerned for that time."

"You're saying you're not even curious?"

"Of course I'm curious," Kuga corrected him, looking away again. "I want to know about whatever this is, just like you do, but I'm not going to scuffle around when nothing's been put down to find."

"But there _is_ something," Osamu opposed, almost in a whisper, "right above us."

Kuga found no words to respond with for a few moments, staring at Osamu with disbelief flashing in his eyes. "First you want to go up there to help, and now you want to go up to try and figure out what the enemy is?"The message conveyed through his expression was enough to make Osamu pull his gaze away, probably something not far from, _'Is he an idiot?'_

"I-"

"That's _absolutely_ crazy- no, it's beyond that. What are the odds of you actually learning something by doing nothing more than look at one of the attackers? I saw Neighbors in Mikado City, and unless they've got some weird features the uniforms those ones were wearing covered up, they're not really distinguishable from humans, so it's highly unlikely you could even tell what these attackers are. And if you _do_ prove that the offensive force is one or the other, you have no way of telling who they are. It's just seeing another face."

"No," Osamu brought himself to meet Kuga's eyes in determination, "the uniforms are what would give Neighbors away in an instant, and their weaponry would be more advanced just because of what they have available - I grew up with them watching every move I made, I would definitely be able to recognize one. And... I know it's not like I could pull an identity from sight alone, you're right about that, but I want to see for myself what our enemy is if nobody is going to explain it to me. I want to know what they want here, but if the past four days have led me to deduce one thing, it's that Jin and the others aren't going to be telling me any time soon so I'm willing to take matters into my own hands."

"You're a trainee," Kuga said it as if it were the answer to everything. "One that's only _been_ here for the past four days. Of course they won't spill everything to you, you're probably not even cleared to know that stuff. Wait until you're an actual soldier."

"That's too long a time!" Osamu protested, standing up to exceed Kuga's height and trying not to wince at the pain in his lower back from his fall earlier. "If I see something up there now, the people here _have_ to explain things to me. Think about it, I'll get a clue as to what's going on _and_ make sure the others are okay!"

"Dying," Kuga added, "don't forget about dying."

"I won't die here. I can't."

"No, you won't. You'll die up _there_."

"I won't die," Osamu repeated, sounding more confident. "And even if I do, if I stay here other other people might, an-"

"And it's not your responsibility to save them," Kuga finished the sentence for him, with an exceedingly different set of words from what Osamu had been going to say. "I can already tell you're the type of person that puts burdens on their shoulders they can't carry, and that feels they have to protect everyone around them. You do what you think is morally right without taking the time to consider any consequences, and in doing so recklessly put yourself in danger. In an environment like this, you have to value your own life above others' and prioritize protecting _yourself_ if you want to survive."

Osamu knew that wouldn't sit well with him, even if it _was_ somewhat practical, but he also knew Kuga was serious about his logic and would stick to it, and saw it useless trying to explain his own reasoning in hopes of being understood. "Sorry, but that's not how I do things."

"Don't be sorry to _me._ " Kuga's face remained mostly neutral, but Osamu detected the beginnings of a frown. "So, what do you plan to do? Walk out just like that?"

"Y...You're not trying to stop me?"

"Unless there's something you think I could say to convince you, besides 'that's probably the most foolish thing I've heard in the past couple of weeks'."

"I don't want to attract anyone's attention," Osamu looked past Kuga's comment, "so I'll have to look for another exit point, but there's none that I can see from here and I can't just ask someone... Did you see any other doors when we came down here?" Osamu looked around himself, noticing Natsume for the first time among the clusters of trainees but seeing it too risky to ask her. "It wouldn't make much sense for there to only be one way in and out of this place, and if there's not maybe there's passageways to other bunkers, though I don't know much about... military... setups..."

"If you're really serious about this, it would be logical for there to be some other exits, if one way out got blocked or something." Kuga's eyes scanned the dull space, to Osamu's surprise, but he didn't seem to have found anything either. "But you'll have to find it, and I can't say sniffing around won't make you look suspicious."

 _He's still trying to discourage me, isn't he...? Saying I'll look suspicious._ Osamu caught on to the underlying message Kuga gave, deciding it was conscious rather than a misinterpretation. "You think it'll be hard to find?"

"I don't know much about 'military setups'."

Forcefully pushing aside the pain that still pulsed where he landed on his back, which he'd insisted didn't need any attention earlier, Osamu walked around trying to act idle, keeping an eye out for anything that could serve as an exit while being careful to avoid eye contact with the other trainees, Natsume especially. Not that he had anything against her, almost the opposite, in fact, but if anyone seemed most likely to ask him if he was doing something and not leave him alone until he coughed up an explanation, it was her. Or Yotaro, but Osamu had lost sight of him a few minutes prior.

A hatch on the roof caught his eye first, but Osamu ruled it out without much second thought. For one thing, him trying to get up there would be more noticeable than throwing open the large door he and Kuga walked in through would, and even if he _did_ manage to sneak up inconspicuously it was probably another ladder. He wasn't jumping at the chance.

 _Come on, I need something that can be hidden. I'll be back quick enough, but I'd still need to come in without anyone seeing._

He moved towards an area empty of any people, with boxes of various materials and sizes stacked against the walls - if Osamu had to guess, provisions or spare weapons and uniforms. The lights hanging from the ceiling were fewer and dimmer, and Osamu hoped for the appearance of a door, _any_ door, that wasn't in the corner of prying eyes. He did feel somewhat in the wrong for sneaking around, but Osamu comforted himself with the fact that nobody apart from Kuga would even know that he was gone, and decided what he was doing was the best way to make himself useful.

 _Oh, there?_

He noticed it to the right of a stack of dark crates that were blanketed in a coat of dust, and warily glancing over his shoulder Osamu inched towards what looked like a smaller version of the main door. With a sinking feeling, he realized there was a passcode lock linked to the metal slab, just as there had been to the inside of the larger door. When he had came in through that, however, it seemed Jin had already informed people in the bunker of his and Kuga's arrival beforehand, and Yotaro allowed them through after confirming their identities.

Osamu thought back to the code he'd watched Konami put in when he'd walked inside the base for the first time, coming from the vehicle hangar. He tried to visualize specific numbers, but the most he could remember was the general area in which she'd hit the icons - that narrowed down the possibilities, at least, though Osamu paused before touching anything.

 _Will someone be alerted if enter the wrong numbers?_ Osamu tensed at the thought, but ultimately pushed it away. It would be more likely for that to happen if he was trying to open the door from the outside, and especially if the Tamakoma soldiers were in the middle of a battle, Osamu doubted they would spare a soldier to keep a tab on the unlikely possibility of someone sneaking _out_ of the shelter.

He tried his luck.

 _5-9-6-0..._

The numbers disappeared and an 'x' appeared on the screen for a moment, before it returned to a blank slate.

 _5-0-9-8..._

Another 'x.'

 _9-_

"Osamu?"

Osamu felt his heart punch his chest as he heard his name from a voice that wasn't Kuga's, and he snatched his hand away from the keypad with the jolting realization he'd have to explain himself. He turned around cautiously, running through in his head even the most far-fetched of excuses he could think of.

He couldn't say he was relieved when he saw the speaker, but this person seeing him was definitely better than anyone else, excluding Kuga, the one person already aware of his intentions.

"...Yotaro?"

"What are you doing?" The younger boy looked at him with the smile he'd held consistent since Osamu met him, and he noticed Raijin-maru was absent from his side. "There's nobody over here."

Osamu incoherently began words and cut himself off several times, debating whether or not it was safe to tell the child what he was doing. Everything he thought of in the seconds before fled, and the thought of lying made his tongue sour before saying a word. "Uh, I was- I was just looking around," he replied, that, on it's own, still being the truth.

"For what?"

"I was... I was looking... for..." Osamu didn't want to lie, but he assumed he would be penalized for telling the truth, and knew _that_ could push him back further than his current actions would push him forward.

Yotaro grinned at him. "Don't worry, I know."

Osamu almost lost his balance.

"You-? D-Did Kuga tell you?" _Why would he do that?_

"Er, technically, you did."

"What do you mean, technically, I di-? Wait, were you _eavesdropping_?"

"In my defense, there are few people who _wouldn't_ eavesdrop when they overhear a rookie intending to charge into a fight unarmed." Yotaro walked forward, glancing at the single digit still entered into the lock. "And even if you did have a weapon and the strength to fight, you can't go up there."

Osamu turned to face him directly, irritated by the child having listened to his conversation with Kuga, and looking at his face saw that Yotaro clearly knew more about the current situation than Osamu did. "Why not?"

"Well, for starters, what's inside these bunkers can't be picked up by radar," he began, "which is why it's safe for anyone to hide down here without much fear of being attacked unless things get _really_ bad-"

 _What does that have to do with why he's saying I can't leave?_

"-so it's where trainees are sent if staying aboveground is dangerous. The radar advantage, though - the entire base is reinforced with Trion, as you probably already know, including the ground floor. There it's spread out unevenly, and I think it shifts all the time, making it pretty impossible for anyone to get a readable signal of any people down here, so they can't locate underground rooms easily." Osamu began to ask why that was relevant, but before he could say a word Yotaro made his point clear. "But when you leave and start moving around, anyone paying attention to the radar is going to notice that signature. Worst case scenario, they track it back to where you came from, but nonetheless you'll lead them right to you by going out."

The numerous questions Osamu had singled out, "...What's Trion?"

Yotaro's face fell, and Osamu only became further interested as he deciphered the face of someone who had said something they shouldn't have. "Oh, you haven't...? They didn't-? Oh, ohhh, that explains... Right, nevermind that, actually-"

"You sound like you're covering something up," Osamu observed, glancing around and hoping he sounded no more than innocently curious.

"It's not my place to explain _that_ kind of thing," Yotaro avoided the question, "the part of it that you probably want to know, anyway. Wait, have you even learned how the weapons work?"

Osamu shook his head. Thinking back, if 'Trion' was what made the sword Jin used in Mikado City look like an oversized glowstick, he'd at least _seen_ it.

Yotaro mirrored the motion, to inform Osamu _he_ wasn't going to be the one to explain things to him. "Imagine it showing up on radar, like, uh... like a heat signature or something, I dunno, but long story short: it's what's keeping us hidden right now. _Don't_ leave until it's clear."

 _He's talking around my question_ , Osamu thought to himself with a frown, _he's totally talking around my question. Well, then again, I_ did _ask why I couldn't leave before... No, he still changed the subject back abruptly. And he's a trainee too, why would he know things I don't?_

Osamu was strongly conflicted; especially after hearing what Yotaro said about the radar, the decision whether or not to go aboveground should've already been made for him. If the child was telling the truth, it would be completely stupid, even by _Osamu's_ standard of stupid, to go upstairs and look for answers, but _not_ doing it gave him a strange feeling of unease. He was willing to risk his life just minutes ago, and now the idea he'd had was apparently no longer an option.

"Chika's going to be fine, the others are going to be fine, everything's fine," Yotaro declared, and Osamu hadn't noticed him walk behind him to lightly shove his back with one hand, pushing him away from the door. "That's what you wanted to go make sure of, right? And, since you said something about 'getting a clue as to what's going on' or whatever, if you're pissed at Jin for keeping you in the dark, he'll tell you what you're allowed to know if you find a good time to ask him."

 _So he heard that much_. "I'm not... 'pissed' at Jin," Osamu clarified, fighting the urge to tell Yotaro not to say such things. "But I _have_ asked questions, _multiple_ times."

"Keep in mind you did show up with Yuma," Yotaro pointed out, "so naturally things would be different compared to what it would be like if it was just you. That meaning, most people's priority is on him for the time being and everything isn't all easy to explain. While I bet it seems you're being tossed into this place you don't know anything about and never will, everything's gonna start to make sense."

"You say things won't be easy to explain right now, yet I thought you said earlier that I came here at a good time?"

"In comparison to other times? It's a _great_ time - for now, anyway."

"For now," Osamu exhaled, whether he was talking to himself or Yotaro left ambiguous, "for now, and being attacked _at the base_ is a considered a great time. Great, sounds great indeed." Yotaro didn't say anything back, and as Osamu was about to add something else to his own words, with mixed feelings he caught sight of Kuga shuffling around one of the crate stacks.

"Oh, you're busted?" The white-haired boy said jokingly, referring to Yotaro's presence, and he attained a smart smile as he looked at Osamu. "Surprising, to be honest I thought you'd figure a way out."

"I almost _did_ , but he'd been listening to our conversation earlier."

"He managed to talk some sense into you, then? Clever kid, he must be better with words than I am, you probably would've gotten killed otherwise."

"Wouldn't let me leave, rather," Osamu corrected him, only disclosing a broad version of what had happened. He doubted Kuga knew of anything Yotaro had just told him, and didn't think he was even capable of giving a proper explanation when he had close to no idea what 'Trion' was.

Yotaro bounced forward, starting to walk past Kuga and back towards the area most trainees were congregated. "Yeah, I'm with Yuma on this one, you would've died! Besides, you don't even need to be worried in the first place, it's only a few Border squads."

Osamu had been reluctantly following him when he stopped in his tracks, unintentionally letting his mouth hang open as he found himself standing next to Kuga. Yotaro kept walking, oblivious, as Osamu and Kuga looked at each other with eyes wider than usual and said the exact same word in confused unison.

"...Border?"

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Poor Osamu, not only does he have no idea how Tamakoma is faring up there but he has no idea what they're up against! Did I start my note with "poor Osamu" in the last chapter, too? It'll probably be relevant for a while, though. Maybe when I've finished this fic I'll go back and count how many times I say it.**

 **Oh, and in the beginning of the chapter when Osamu was talking with cotton balls in his mouth, I shoved two in my mouth and recited his lines to make sure his dialogue was correct. Would not recommend, the taste is horrible!**


	16. Promise and Step One

"Yeah, I'm with Yuma on this one, you would've died! Besides, you don't even need to be worried in the first place, it's only a few Border squads."

Osamu had been reluctantly following him when he stopped in his tracks, unintentionally letting his mouth hang open as he found himself standing next to Kuga. Yotaro kept walking, oblivious, and Osamu and Kuga looked at each other with eyes wider than usual as they said the exact same word in confused unison.

"...Border?"

It was easy to see Yotaro flinch, looking like he'd stopped with a shock, and he turned around halfway to reveal an expression that announced his next words with perfect clarity before he even spoke. "You're kidding, right?"

"Border..." Osamu repeated to himself, brows slanted. "Bo-? Oh! Natsume said something about that, 'he could've gone to _Border_ ', talking about me...! Border, so they're called Border, then?"

Yotaro spun around completely, and snappily pointed at Osamu while speaking in a voice louder than before. "You did _not_ hear that from me, got it?"

"So they're human, right? Because Natsume said I could've ended up there?" Osamu kept asking questions enthusiastically, ignoring Yotaro's panic and the quiet chuckles coming from Kuga. "No, that doesn't really mean that - wait, but why would Neighbors want to take someone outside a ci-?"

"They're human, alright?" Yotaro shushed him hurriedly, his voice an agitated whisper, obviously trying not to shout any more than he already had and probably regretting his loudness earlier. "But if you don't know about them, _I'm_ sure as hell not gonna be the one to tell you!"

"Why not?" Osamu spoke in the same whisper, not letting the possibility of an explanation go so easily. "You talk as if I should already know this! Why didn't anyone tell me?"

 _'Border' must've been the group Jin mentioned when he took me to see Kuga...!_

With one thought, he stopped as he heard Jin's voice in his head yet again, reminding him of the same line that had unexpectedly reappeared in the situation.

 _'There are people after Kuga, and those people won't hesitate to torture anyone they believe may know something.'_

 _Wait, then does that...?_

"If whoever Border is has come here... and Jin said..." Osamu's eyes stretched wide, and they locked on Kuga with the realization he wish he hadn't remembered. "No way, they can't be... They're here for K-!"

He never finished. Something hard hit his face, _dead center_ , momentarily stunning him into silence as he tried to process what happened with shock forcing him to stare ahead.

Kuga didn't say anything, though he looked fairly interested, and Osamu shook his head back into focus just in time to see Yotaro marching towards him. The room still spinning around him, Osamu watched the child pick something off the ground at his feet before quickly popping back up with a glare pinned on Osamu. As much of a glare as an eleven year-old could manage, but a glare all the same.

He noticed the object now in Yotaro's hand, and Osamu was taken aback as he recognized what hit his face, now absent from their usual place on Yotaro's hat. "You-! Y-You threw your goggles at me!"

Yotaro refused to use words, shaking his head and putting a finger over his lips out of Kuga's field of vision.

Did Kuga not know?

"What were you going to say?" Kuga asked with light suspicion, looking at Osamu and Yotaro with a lack of understanding of the latter's reaction.

"Nothing," Yotaro rushed an answer in Osamu's place, waving a hand apologetically. "He's trying to figure things out on his own again."

Kuga nodded first, accepting the response but leaving little comment on it. "...Oh, I see."

 _He doesn't believe him._

"Just go back to waiting the fight out," Yotaro advised both of them, not noticing anything odd about how Yuma replied, and he wrapped his goggles back around the rim of his hat. "It'll go by faster if you're not thinking about it, Osamu."

"Right," he said halfheartedly, consciously focused on Kuga and why he wouldn't know something that Osamu did - if anything, given his experience thus far, Osamu would've expected it to be the opposite.

 _Jin didn't go into much detail about the people targeting Kuga, so maybe it's not that strange that he's in the dark... All I really knew is that there_ were _people after him, and ended up connecting it to whatever this 'Border' thing is on my own. But why would they keep something like that from him?_

Kuga tapped his shoulder, bringing Osamu back to his surroundings. There was something in his eyes telling Osamu to go back to where the other trainees stood, though neither of them had any idea as to if someone had noticed them or not. Yotaro didn't seem to, either, but he also didn't seem to particularly care, and he walked over abruptly without saying any more.

Ages seemed to go by, and Osamu felt isolated on the edge of a cluster of people virtually ignoring him. _Border_ , he kept saying the strange name to himself, and each time he did it became no less unnerving to think about. If the group attacking the base was indeed the same organization Jin said were after Kuga, Osamu knew these people would use inhumane methods of gaining information if they saw it necessary, and now they were a floor above his head, threatening the very place that allowed him his freedom.

And he couldn't do a thing.

"Osamu," Kuga said suddenly, and Osamu turned to see him sitting atop a short bench jutting from the wall a few steps away. He was playing with the tuft of hair in the center of his forehead with a bored expression, though his gaze shifted towards Osamu as he addressed him.

Osamu realized he was waiting for a response, and nodded as he made eye contact to signal he was listening. Kuga seemed to be thinking something over, him doing so making Osamu a bit nervous, but he waited patiently with the assumption Kuga knew what he wanted to say.

"About earlier," he began after a few seconds, "when you were trying to say that those Border people were here for something..."

Osamu held his breath.

"...you were going to say my name, weren't you?"

He could feel his heartbeat increase, and his mouth went dry as Osamu tried to come up with something to cover up his near mistake - even though he was mostly unaware as to _why_ it was a mistake, as to why Kuga wouldn't know he was a target. "Oh, then- then I was, I-I thought-" The words stopped by themselves, and without a believable way to convince Kuga something other than what he'd guessed, Osamu's shoulders fell.

"I'm right, then?"

"I'm sorry," was all Osamu could say, unable to meet Kuga's eyes. "I... thought you knew. N-Not that I really do, either!" He added quickly as he saw Kuga's face, "I was making assumptions without knowing everything I should've."

"Don't apologise." Kuga didn't look at him, either, his eyes drifting over the crowd of trainees some meters away. "I had been considering it myself, anyways. I was just wondering what prompted you to make the connection."

 _That_ surprised Osamu into eye contact, and he sharply moved his head towards the shorter boy with full attention on Kuga. "Wait, why did _you_ make the connection? What have they told you?"

"It's not as notable as you're probably thinking," Kuga admitted, "but when I woke up in the base, Jin told me that there was another group of people looking for me - apart from the Neighbors and presumably these people, that is, and he hasn't bothered to tell me anything else on the subject. So when I hear this place is under attack, mere days after I showed up, one of the first thoughts I had was whether or not it was the group Jin mentioned. It seems too convenient of a timing if it's not _somehow_ related."

"He said something similar to me," Osamu mentioned, trying not to speak too quickly. "That there were people after you, and he mentioned Tamakoma sought you out to protect you from them. I was wrong to jump to conclusions earlier, but... you think it's likely, too?"

"Probably."

 _Why is he so calm about it?_

Regardless of how hard he tried to put it aside, Osamu was already convinced he knew a broad version of why Border, even without him having knowledge as to what kind of an organization they were, wanted Kuga, but even touching on it would be taking a step on thin ice. Would Kuga be upset if he vocalized his guess? Did he _share_ it?

He had to.

"I can't say I know exactly what I'd be used for," Kuga kept talking. "I still can't control this ability, so it's not like I'd be a useful asset in a fight, but it's not like there's any other reason why people would go to the lengths of launching an attack to get me."

Konami's voice in Mikado City came to mind as Osamu heard those words. _'Explain why_ _the hell glasses boy here's got the_ _Neighbors' path_ _to annihilating us on his back.'_ She was talking to Jin, wasn't she? And Jin _understood_? Just by having witnessed Kuga's superhuman return-from-death act once, it was clear enough to Osamu that he would be incredibly valuable, but the specifics as to what he would be used for were beyond him.

 _He talks about it so casually now_ , Osamu realized, the corners of his mouth pulled down. "Don't talk like you'd be 'used', Kuga, and I'm sure that when you get more information on them you'll understand why your capabilities are so important to people."

Kuga laughed, a sweet sound to hear in the context of their conversation. "Strange to hear _that_ coming from a person who was prepared to waltz into a battleground with a few days of combat training to get explanations, isn't it? Talking of waiting for information."

"Waltz?" The unfamiliar word felt strange on Osamu's tongue. "You mean walk?"

"You don't know?" Kuga raised his eyebrows, acting as if it were a normal word. "It's... a kind of dance, I think? It's like most other words, just in my head like I've always known them even though I have no idea where I learned them. I'm not sure if I used to know how to perform one when I lived before being put to sleep, though. If I remember maybe I'll teach you."

"Really?" Osamu was intrigued by the concept, but he found himself more curious as to where Kuga learned the word in the first place. _I wonder what city he was from... I've never heard of such a thing. Was it passed on by the people from before the war? And the Neighbors let them get away with it?_

"Sure, it'd be fun." Kuga smiled at him, and Osamu was glad to see him looking happy. It was some form of a relief to see him talk about his absent memories, even minimally, without having to strain himself, and Osamu hoped things would stay that way.

He moved to sit next to Kuga, the pain in his back starting to return from standing, and Osamu shuffled his feet as he returned to the original subject. "About waiting for information, though, I'm certain Tamakoma's keeping things from me - _us_ \- that they already know. They're still trying to learn more about you, so I'm sure you'll figure things out as they do."

"I'll figure things out as they do?" Kuga smiled again, though it didn't meet his eyes as his laugh had. "Yeah, I hope so."

 _He doesn't think he will_.

The brightness in Kuga's features lessened, though he maintained a soft expression as he looked away from Osamu and folded his hands in front of him. Osamu kept him in the corner of his eye, feeling obliged to provide _something_ to reassure him but finding himself losing the words. He was coming to understand that Kuga was easily even more confused than Osamu was, but he had been managing to hide it well enough to soothe Osamu's concern until he truly considered it.

Kuga was stronger than him.

"I'll help you," he decided after a moment of silence, straightening his shoulders as he looked at Kuga. Green eyes met a pair of surprised red ones that stared back, having not expected the declaration, and a different light reflected in both of them.

"... _Help_ me?"

"About your ability," Osamu continued, going on a sudden determination, "I'm going to help you find out what it is."

 _I'll show Tamakoma they can't keep me in the dark. I'll help Kuga when they won't_.

Kuga was still smiling, but the rest of his face didn't look like he agreed. "Osamu, I'm not-"

"I'm not saying you can't do it yourself," Osamu clarified, "but I'm saying you don't have to wait for someone else to tell you about your own life, and you don't have to look for answers alone."

 _I'm not helpless, and neither is Kuga._

"You have something in mind?"

"Not... I will, I promise I will. But we have to start somewhere."

Kuga didn't say anything, and he took his gaze from Osamu as he stared ahead with a blank look in his eyes. He was completely still, excluding the occasional blink, and with a sigh Osamu joined him in thinking to himself after confirming the emotion that lingered on the boy's face.

He looked happy again.

And Osamu was ready to tell Tamakoma neither of them were to be left ignorant.

 _"It's begun."_

The voice came through Hyuse's earpiece sounding scratchy, but was speaking in quick, crisp syllables appropriate for the situation. He knew not the name of the speaker, a young-sounding operator stationed in one of several observation bases between Aftokrator's region headquarters, where Hyuse remained on standby, and the targeted rebellion base. His response was brief, tapping a button on the small radio device to relay his words. "How many?"

 _"Four or five squads, and any more are yet to be confirmed. All_ _Trion_ _signals seem to have entered the base, but at the moment they're all coming from weapons. That of host type Yuma_ _Kuga's_ _disappeared shortly after we received word of the conflict."_

"He's probably being kept underground, then," Hyuse muttered to himself, then raising his chin and clicking the radio again. "Status?"

 _"The defensive forces are holding them off."_

"And our units?"

 _"All yet to depart. Standing by."_

"Stay in position."

 _"Roger, sir."_

The exchange ended on that word, and Hyuse brushed a tuft of hair behind his ear as he looked out the nearest window. A thick glass window stretched from halfway up the wall to the ceiling, others identical to it evenly spread out in the hallway Hyuse stood in; the structure of the building he was in was nowhere near as nice as that of the capital city military HQ, but it had its similarities. The sun was barely rising, and Hyuse could still see stars across the darker parts of the sky.

Hyuse had been sent to the smaller base two days prior to keep a closer observation on the human rebels, its usual commander handing leadership to him until he were to return to the capital. With tensions continuing to grow between groups within Aftokrator, however, Hyuse warily had his suspicions on why Hyrein would send him away from the center of the military, but he wouldn't dare vocalize any of them and complied peacefully. He forced himself to focus on whatever the humans' conflict was.

The lower-ranked soldiers in his location were obviously unhappy with the arrangement, having been temporarily put under the orders of a child with commoner roots, and they made no effort to act otherwise. Hyuse had already been aware his authority was questioned, but he took no care in hiding that the feeling of disrespect was mutual. It would only be for the next few days at most, anyways, depending on the course of events within the hours ahead.

 _"Hyuse,"_ a voice different from the first one spoke into his earpiece, _"there's orders from above."_

Hyuse moved further towards the wall to be out of the way of any other soldiers, and responded quickly. "Mira? Right, continue."

 _"You've been instructed to lead the platoon currently on standby to the site of the battle,"_ she said, _"but you're to stay at a safe, undetectable distance for however long this may take and keep an eye on the state of both sides until an outcome is determined._

 _From there, you have two possible courses of action. The first: if the offensive force secures Kuga, you launch your attack on that group immediately after they clear the base, retrieving him there. If possible, your secondary goal is to wipe out all of their units before the defending humans can interfere, but don't jeopardize the mission to accomplish this._

 _And the second: should the enemy offensive lose to enemy defensive and retreat, you're to do so as well without them noticing."_

Hyuse narrowed his eyes. "What?"

 _"You already know the location of the camp set up at a closer distance from their base, you'll be falling back there. Reinforcements will be sent to attack the base within the next twenty-four hours, and you obtain Kuga then."_

"And this _wouldn't_ be giving them the advantage of time? You said to remain at an undetectable distance, so our presence will go unseen until confronting them at their base if it comes to that. They wouldn't be preparing, if all goes well."

 _"The ideal situation is finishing this today, taking out the rouge humans in the process, but if the defenders manage to keep Kuga, even after the delay you're still going to have the surprise factor on your side. Be sure to remain in the far reach of their radar range while observing, and order your soldiers to cloak themselves from detection."_

"Understood. Is that all?"

 _"I'm going to send the mission details document, but yes. Be prepared to depart in thirty minutes."_

"Acknowledged."

Mira left him with that, and while brushing his hair aside Hyuse walked back in the direction he had come from. The platoon soldiers would be grumbling about following him into a battle, but he expected them to put aside any personal skepticism surrounding him for the sake of their country. If they couldn't manage at least that, there was no place for them in the military.

 _If the rouge humans succeeded in capturing Yuma Kuga, ambush them as they escape the other humans' base. If they fail, let them leave and wait for reinforcements and attack the other humans' base itself the next day._ Hyuse ran through the two plans, and he understood that bringing a force large enough to be able to invade an organized base wasn't logical if they were going to be waiting for the humans' battle to finish. It would cost too much Trion to hide them all for any time longer than what was already necessary to travel there, and wasting resources was considered an offense resulting in heavy punishment, regardless of whether or not it was intentional. While he had his doubts, Hyuse knew that retreating to camp to await reinforcements was a better option in comparison to bringing an entire company on the first attempt, when it may not even be necessary.

Hyuse found himself staring out a window again, overlooking the makeshift military town that surrounded the base. Even in the early hour, people from soldiers' families already moved through the uneven streets, built over the remains of the outskirts of a human city abandoned and nearly destroyed fifty years ago. Barbed wire, visible in the distance, surrounded the area to protect against whatever was left of dangerous Meeden animals, if there _were_ any, and to make it more difficult for hostile ground forces to attack. What were previously no more than the remains of crumbling human-constructed buildings had been reinforced to make them suitable for living again, but even with the efforts to make them appear presentable Hyuse wasn't used to being outside large cities, and he found it hard to ignore the strange feeling that bit at him whenever he looked at the remnants of a war fought decades before he was even born.

He passed on Mira's orders to the base commander, then hastily traveled towards the lounge where most soldiers seemed to gather, to allow them time to ready themselves. Hyuse was confident, he _had_ to be, and counted on success in whichever strategy would ultimately be used. Failing would only shake the already fragile, chipping trust people had in him due to nothing more than his birthplace, and Hyuse was prepared to crush their suspicions even if it required a ruthless victory. He would willingly step in the middle of parallel wars, and in proving himself loyal to one he would use everything in his power to silence the other.

And the inevitable that he would try to prevent: between humans and Neighbors, Neighbors and Neighbors, and humans and humans, what was originally two opposing sides was on the verge of being broken into several.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **I hope y'all are ready for me to break these alliances like a wheat thin**

 **But it looks like Aftokrator is stepping into the action! Do you think Hyuse will come in contact with any named characters? Which interactions would be the most interesting?**

 ***sniff* Let's not forget the first half, lovely Yuma and Osamu bonding. I hope they help each other lots, but with that being said, there's no telling what kind of reckless things Osamu's going to do trying. Counting on Yuma to keep him out of trouble... for the most part.**


	17. Break For It, Wait For It

The cold morning air pricked at Chika's face as she looked over the horizon, lying in a sniping position with her elbows scraping against the roof. The sun was rising steadily, painting the stone remains around the base in an amber light seeming too peaceful outside of the violence Chika knew was below her. The occasional rumbling from inside the base barely reached the roof, and Chika was already accustomed to it to the point where it failed to startle her if it wasn't notably loud.

 _How long has it been?_ Chika wondered to herself as she watched the quiet skyline, no enemy reinforcements in sight. _Forty, forty-five minutes? Not an hour yet._

 _"Chika,"_ Shiori's voice, coming through an earpiece-shaped radio, interrupted her, _"is everything clear?"_

"Yeah," Chika confirmed, taking a hand from her rifle to tap the communication device. "Nobody's appeared on this side, I don't think there's going to be any more."

The young woman sighed, her relief clearly audible. _"That's good, if it weren't for the small numbers they'd be shy from going all-out. They sent their elites, can you believe that? Just for one Trion host, as if they don't already have them! I mean, granted, Yuma's different from the others we've seen, but_ still _\- sending their best squads seems so over the top! I'm just thankful they didn't drag all of A-Rank over here,_ then _we'd be in trouble."_ She paused, though still kept the radio set for her to be talking. _"Oh, am I rambling? Sorry, Chika, I'm probably distracting you! Don't let your guard down just yet!"_

"Of course," Chika replied, laughing as she pictured Shiori's exaggerated facial expressions. "Let's hope for the best."

 _"For the best!"_

Chika was about to ask her something in a change of subject, but closed her mouth and stopped herself. Shiori's voice was gone before Chika had time to reconsider, but she shook her head and forced her vision in front of her.

 _Osamu's fine_.

She wasn't worried about Tamakoma's defense capabilities and the strength behind them, she was worried that Osamu would, if he was the same as he was three years ago, somehow find a way to slip through those capabilities and throw himself into the battlefield. He had always been one to put himself in danger for the sake of others, even if he had little to no relationship with them, and it would be no surprise if he was feeling like he had to make himself useful to Tamakoma by participating in the defense.

 _I wonder if he's changed at all_ , Chika thought, wincing as she realized she was still yet to have any kind of meaningful conversation with him. Was it strange of her to be worrying over someone she hadn't seen in three years? Hit by a pang of guilt, she began to regret avoiding him since he'd arrived, taking on twice the amount of guard shifts and asking other snipers for point matches more than she usually would. It wasn't necessarily _Osamu_ she was avoiding, though - something in Chika knew that - but the much-needed explanation as to why she'd left Mikado City. The both of them desperately needed to have a discussion on the subject, but Chika feared his reaction while she figured Osamu feared her reasons.

Chika had seen him around a lot, talking with the other soldiers and already looking like he'd found a place in Tamakoma. She also easily noticed, despite intentionally keeping her distance from him, that Osamu seemed like he went to speak with that Yuma boy quite often, and with a heavy feeling in her chest she wondered if he was aware of his apparent new friend's situation. Did he know what was at stake? Did he know what fueled the strange Trion abilities?

 _I'll ask Jin if he's told him_ , she decided, sighing. _Not like we have much of an idea either, though, but I don't even think Osamu knows about Trion. I haven't met Yuma yet, but it must be scary for him, to be living without knowing exactly what he is. It'd probably scare Osamu, too, if he knows about everything. He'd be worried about him._

A few minutes passed with no changes. The sun continued to climb in a sky clear of clouds, and Chika had her eyes locked on the landscape before her when Shiori's voice came through the radio again.

 _"Chika, has anything happened?"_

"No, it's still quiet... Why, is there something happening inside?"

 _"Yeah, it's..."_ Shiori was uncharacteristically quiet for a moment. _"...It's Yuma. Jin says we have to get him outside the base, and Kitora's been sent to lead him through the tunnels to a safer location, but it's not far. They stretch under the area you can see right now, but additional snipers are being moved over there to watch for anything."_

"Jin said that?" Chika referred back to Yuma having to leave the base so suddenly, abandoning a proper sniping position as she felt dread beginning to weigh her down. "What's going on, I thought he was underground with Osamu and the other trainees? Why is he being moved?"

 _"The Trion shield in the floor is going down, they're going to be able to pick up his signal in a matter of minutes. He's going to go further underground for a chance of him avoiding detection. You're being relocated, too, downstairs on the edge of the base to draw them away from Yuma and the shield center. I'll guide you to your position, but it's going to be quick and you'll need to be prepared to run."_

"That's..." Chika looked behind her, only seeing other snipers on the far side of the roof as she glanced towards the door where reinforcements would presumably be coming from. "R-Right, I understand."

 _Bait_.

"Shiori, you're not saying...?"

 _"...Yeah. They brought Ninomiya Squad."_

The exhaustion of being startled awake at five A.M. was finally setting in.

In the midst of the initial shock, Osamu had managed to run on the bursts of energy coming to him with each beat of his heart, but nearly an hour later he began to realize the rough sleep and early waking were taking a quick toll on him. He felt sluggish, and his eyelids drooped as he looked around the considerably quieter shelter.

Kuga was leaning on him, his back against Osamu's shoulder as he propped his legs up on the bench. He'd been sitting mostly in silence, though Osamu hadn't felt Kuga's body loosen in tiredness as his did, and the earlier determination had only then begun to fade from the air. Each time Osamu managed to steal a glance at his friend, traces of a smile still remained on Kuga's face.

There wasn't a part of him that regretted promising to help Kuga find out the truth behind his ability, but Osamu was uncertainly wondering _how_ he would go about fulfilling that promise. Would he approach Jin directly? What would he have to do to convince Jin he was prepared to hear what he wanted to hear?

 _No, I can't count on Jin_ , Osamu decided, frowning. _If he refuses, which he probably will, he'll make it harder for me to find anything. I can't resent him for that if he's following regulations, if trainees aren't supposed to know certain things, but if I always wait until the conditions are ideal nothing's ever going to get done. This is for Kuga's sake_.

He wouldn't have noticed Yotaro approaching him had it not been for the distinguishable sound of claws scraping against the metal floor, a sign Raijin-maru was by his side again. Osamu would admit to no one but himself that he was still mildly intimidated by the dog's presence, but the brown-furred face shaped so it always looked like it was smiling gradually lessened the feeling.

"You're back?" Kuga spoke first, lifting his head up and ruffling his own hair. Osamu felt him tense as Kuga caught sight of the child's face, though he himself did the same as he turned his head enough to see a surprising expression of concern. Something was wrong.

Yotaro held out what looked similar to the radio-equipped earpieces Osamu had seen other soldiers wearing, and he offered it to Kuga. "Jin says he has to speak to you," he told him, his voice lacking the joking, childlike sound he usually spoke with. "It's important."

Kuga sensed his tone, too, and didn't say anything as he cautiously took the device without asking any questions. Osamu asked Yotaro if he knew what Jin wanted, but after a few seconds of silence realized he'd been ignored and watched Kuga for any signs that would give him an answer.

"Jin?" Kuga said into the radio, holding it up to his ear without attaching it. Osamu couldn't make out Jin's response, assuming it _was_ him on the other end, and stayed focused on Kuga's face. He hadn't heard the base shake in the wake of any kind of large attack for at least a half hour, and with that the worry that held his throat earlier eased and became less constant. He hadn't expected Yotaro, of all people, to be the one that reminded him of what was at stake - what was at stake of what he _knew_.

And the way Kuga's face went blank reminded him of the same thing. No one dared interrupt him, and being unable to hear Jin's dialogue Osamu could only listen to one side of the conversation and his nervous heartbeat.

"...What? Why, what's going on?"

"That's _possible_?"

"No, that's not... How much time?"

"I... Right, alright."

"What did he say?" Osamu asked right off the bat, watching Kuga lower the radio with an unreadable expression. "Is everything okay?"

Kuga didn't nod or shake his head, and didn't shift his eyes towards Osamu as he said, "I have to leave."

 _Osamu_ then became the one with little to say.

"Wait, what do you mean, you have to _leave_?" He stared at him, eyebrows creased. "Where? _Why_? What happened?"

Kuga looked like he was trying to puzzle things out as much as Osamu was, and lifted his head as he spoke. "Jin says there's no time to explain the details, but remember the Trion in the floor, that he mentioned earlier?" He pointed his thumb in Yotaro's direction. "The people attacking the base - _Border_ \- can 'nullify' it, and Jin's saying they're rendering it useless. In other words, within the next ten minutes there's no longer going to be a shield that keeps us hidden."

"H-How can they do that?" Osamu forced out, even with his minimal knowledge of Trion finding nullification unrealistic. "And doesn't that mean everyone down here is in danger, too?"

"I can't imagine they would target normal trainees, there's nothing to gain from that. And I've no idea how they manage to do something like shut down however the base's floor is working, but in the context of the situation it's best to go along with the orders of people who seem to know exactly what's going on."

 _It's happening again_ , Osamu realized, _we're being thrown into a situation and expected to do what we're told when nobody's explained anything_. "Where do they intend to send you?"

"Through tunnels Border doesn't know of, according to Jin, deeper underground."

"And where is _that_?"

"He told me someone's coming down here to be a guide. They should be here any minute now; I think Jin said some name with a 'Ki' sound."

Osamu stood up after making sure Kuga was sitting properly and wouldn't fall backwards with the loss of Osamu's shoulder for support, and pushing his glasses up more times than what was necessary he paced back and forth within the space of a few feet. "They're just putting him in some tunnel, out of nowhere? Because, Trion, whatever Trion is, is something that can be nullified? For that matter, _what_ are they even nullifying? What does this Trion thing even _look_ like, is it what Kuga used to shoot in Mikado City? And, speaking of Kuga, if he's in danger here, why wouldn't they hide him down in the tunnel in the first place _-_?"

"Because, they're unfinished, a pain to navigate, and nobody expected Border to show up with who they did. Had they not, your friend there would be completely safe in this bunker."

Osamu stopped as an unfamiliar voice spoke from behind him, and he paused just as he was about to ask another heated question for no specific person to answer. Kuga looked surprised to hear it, too, and they both looked to see who had spoken.

Uncertainty spiked in him as Osamu saw Yotaro not-so-discreetly inch away from them, Raijin-maru lowering his head and following him.

A dark-haired young woman, probably close to Osamu and Kuga's age, stood on the edge of the crowd of trainees with her arms crossed as she tapped her foot. The people around her stared in awe of varying degrees, and the way the atmosphere had changed with her presence alone told Osamu she was someone that expected respect, despite her age - and got it. She stared at him with ice in her eyes, provoking Osamu's nervousness that had been unpredictably on and off, and walked forward with an air of confidence surrounding her.

"Don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong," she advised harshly, addressing Osamu. "There are things trainees like you are permitted to know, and there are things they aren't. Don't confuse the two."

 _Of course I know that_ , Osamu wanted to say, _what does she take me for? It's not like a restriction is going to stop me from just_ asking _questions, I still want to know just as much as everyone else_.

"Who are you?" Kuga asked the girl in a cold tone almost matching hers, quicker than Osamu who would've said the same thing, and his mouth curved in a slight frown.

"A-Rank, Ai Kitora," She introduced herself curtly, not extending her hand or anything of the sort. "And that's _Miss_ Kitora to the both of you, I might add. I'm escorting Kuga."

"A-Rank?" Kuga questioned Osamu quietly. "That's good, isn't it?"

"Of course it's _good_!" Kitora answered in his place, even though all it took was a simple nod. "It's better than 'good,' in fact, it's the elites of this base. Only the most capable are A-Rank, and if you'd like to know about it there's no use in asking a mere C-Rank."

Osamu noticed she put a subtle emphasis on the term 'C-Rank', another word used to classify trainees but not used as much - at least within the trainees themselves, from Osamu's short experience. Above them, B-Ranks were normal soldiers, having completed all their training and by then ready to face real battles, and, just as Kitora had said, A-Rank was the elite class of Tamakoma. They weren't known to flaunt such a status, though Kitora seemed to be quite proud of whatever achievements allowed her to rise in the ranks.

"Anyways," she sighed, Osamu taking note of how she sounded almost bothered, "I'll be taking Kuga now. Don't worry, Border's not going to target the rest of you guys down here if his signal isn't with the rest. You'll be fine, and we're hoping to wrap this up before the sun's risen."

"Wait, you're just-" Osamu found himself putting himself between Kitora and Kuga as the latter started to stand up, looking between the two of them. "You're just leaving? Alone? With Kuga, I mean, but-?"

Kitora narrowed her eyes. "And what did you expect?"

"...Well, I'm coming too."

He had already been expecting to be met with a face that asked him if he lacked sense, but Kitora seemed to be inflating her reaction "Are you kidding? You'd only be an extra weight, and I wasn't assigned to babysit."

"Wh-? Wait, you can't be far from my age, right?"

"I'm talking about _status_ , and in addition to that I don't assume you know anything about the situation. I'm not dragging you along, don't question me - not to mention that we're extremely short on time, so Kuga, if you'll follow me-"

"There's no harm in letting Osamu tag along," Kuga intervened, already on his feet. "Unless, for some reason, you find guiding two people through a tunnel a difficult task. Aren't you A-Rank?"

"I'm not arguing with either of you!" Kitora scoffed, already turning around in what was probably the direction of wherever the exit they would be taking was. "Didn't you hear _why_ Kuga has to get out? What part of 'they're taking down the Trion shield' don't you understand?"

Kuga met her eyes, unblinking. "You say we have to go quickly, but believe me when I say the faster you agree with Osamu the faster we'll get moving. He won't give up."

Kitora, much to Osamu's surprise, didn't say anything, though didn't take it upon herself to spare him from a final glare. Kuga looked satisfied as he made eye contact with Osamu, before tailing Kitora as she marched in the other direction with the expectation he would follow. She never said Osamu _was_ to go with her and Kuga, but in the end her lack of a verbal response to Kuga's advice failed to reaffirm that he _wasn't_.

So he followed Kuga, following Kitora.

Osamu realized in slight annoyance that the entrance to the tunnel system was the same door he had been trying to open earlier, though didn't speak of it to Kitora and, luckily, Kuga didn't either. He strained his eyes to stare over Kitora's shoulder from less than a meter away, trying to catch a glance at the code she typed in, but he could only see the last two digits - _9-6_. Kuga looked at him knowingly, but still didn't say anything.

"Don't step out of line," Kitora cautioned rudely as the door slid open, talking specifically to Osamu. "I could ditch you down there if I wanted to, you know."

Osamu nodded stiffly, not wanting to start a pointless argument when time was obviously short. "...Right."

Cramped gray walls surrounded them inside, and the confined space was dimly lit with pale blue-tinted lights that seemed brighter after the door closed. The small area was nearly identical to the landing Osamu had fallen on going down to the first bunker, and he was relieved to see that stairs awaited them in place of a ladder. Kuga, for the second time, side-eyed him as he noticed, not bothering to subdue a teasing smile.

"Watch your step," Kitora advised both of them without turning around, and walked on without hesitation. Her footsteps echoed off the walls, the sound of Osamu and Kuga's joining them as they shuffled behind her, and Osamu squinted down at the metal staircase to prevent himself from tripping. Frankly, he was more worried about falling forwards and taking Kitora down with him than he was about getting hurt again.

He felt the air chill gradually as the three of them went further down, but the brightness of the lights remained consistent. Osamu heard Kitora stepping on a flat floor just up above, and touched down himself seconds later with Kuga at his side, staying silent as he looked around the tunnel that had widened out from the enclosed stairs. It was as bright as the hallways upstairs and was relatively similar in structure and appearance, but Osamu only saw two doors early on before the walls became blank, and as Kitora led them further through the tunnel it looked less and less polished.

"You said this place was unfinished?" Osamu cleared his throat, widening his steps to keep pace with Kitora as he spoke towards her. "How much of it is?"

"Speaking in terms of the size of the finished network," Kitora looked at him over her shoulder, "most of it's incomplete. The tunnels completely safe to be in are small in number, but enough to get a safe distance away from the base. We're not going far."

"Why were they built?"

"An escape route and shelter, obviously."

"So nothing in particular led to the decision?"

"Why are you asking?"

"Is there harm in asking?"

Kitora refused to look at him as she turned her head back around with a flip of short hair, her back facing the two people following her. "It's not necessarily that, but I gave you an answer, what will details do for a trainee?"

Kuga chimed in before Osamu could think up a response. "And what will being uselessly stubborn do for an A-Rank?"

"K-Kuga!" Osamu's mouth fell open as he faced him in mild panic, and Kuga looked back at him as if he hadn't said anything wrong. "You can't say that!"

"Why not?"

"She's an elite!"

Kitora's footsteps stopped, and Osamu immediately assumed she was going to say some sharp-tongued remark, but as his eyes drifted to the left he saw that another tunnel branched off of the one they were in. They were probably turning there, but that still wasn't reason for Kitora to come to a complete halt, and as she crossed her arms she moved to overlook the two whispering boys with an authoritative glare. "There was no specific incident that prompted the construction, but the idea originally sprung from the possibility of a large-scale Neighbor attack, not from any concern with Border's actions. We've prevented Border from mapping out an exact layout of this base, but the Neighbors have data on the entire structure - apart from the tunnels, that is, which is why they were built."

Osamu held his response for a moment, wary of the wildly unexpected answer he knew he would receive. "And they have data on this place... why?"

Kitora glanced at him briefly, her expression frigid, and then diverted her eyes back towards the underground hallway in front of her her. "It was an abandoned Neighbor base until Tamakoma occupied it four years ago." She, too, paused as Osamu had before saying her next words.

"Four years ago, when they broke off from the revolution."


	18. The Divide and The Conquered

"Four years ago, when they broke off from the revolution."

Osamu stood, mouth open and vacant of words, staring at the girl in front of him like she'd started speaking in gibberish. _Tamakoma_ had broken offfrom the rebels? That meaning, if Osamu was correct, that the only remaining option was _those_ rebels, the ones that spread a thick fog of rumors that reached even the interior of cities, were _Border_?

And _that_ meaning the seemingly heroic people Osamu's past self had entrusted with the future of humanity had never been Tamakoma, Tamakoma were the ones to separate _themselves_ , they had been Border.

"What do you mean, they _broke off_?" Osamu bit his lip as Kitora continued walking, taking a left turn as he assumed she would, and he spoke with a raised voice that echoed around the tight space. Kuga met his eyes for a short second, red depths wary.

 _If Tamakoma's something else, why does everyone here consider themselves the rebellion - revolution, or whatever the more common term is - then?_

 _And why did Jin introduce himself as a rebellion soldier?_

 _Was it a lie?_

Kitora didn't look back at him, but responded relatively quickly. "They broke off, isn't that simple enough? Four years ago, drastically differing viewpoints within Border led to tension and even fighting, so eventually, Tamakoma was created as a sub-organization for those people whose goals contrasted with those of Border itself. They acted independently from each other, which inevitably resulted in further conflicts between the groups when they got in each other's way - which is still an issue, unfortunately - and in time, Tamakoma cut itself off completely."

Osamu took it upon himself to ask questions, walking being a chore pushed to the back of his mind as he sunk further into the pit including every possible answer Kitora could give. "Wait, so Border was the original organization, with the original name? And it _split up_?"

"Speaking in reference to the present, yes," Kitora confirmed, "but during the first few months after the divide there were three groups, actually, and back then two of them - one being the Old Tamakoma group and the other the current Border - both referred to themselves as 'Border' before the name 'Tamakoma' came into being. The third group, no longer calling themselves Border, was made up of people that prioritized freeing people from the Neighbors' cities and protecting human citizens, and despite being different from Old Tamakoma they allied with it due to inferior numbers to Border."

 _What the hell is a 'revolution' that's_ not _trying to get rid of Neighbors?_ "What's the difference between these people, then, what made them split up? And who was the other group that merged with Tamakoma?"

"As I said, that third group, which was known four years ago as the 'Peace Faction', wanted to fight for and protect humanity and establish safe cities. The original Tamakoma differed further from Border, though - their goal was to replace the Neighbor government and rebuild a new one from the ground up, cooperating with peaceful Neighbors and including them in the system with the hope of being able to live alongside some. Like the Peace Faction, they wanted to save the humans under Neighbor control, and in addition to that both groups were determined to take down the walled cities, making it easier for them to join together. Today, Tamakoma's become a combination of both of those goal sets."

"They want to cooperate with _Neighbors_?" Osamu was absolutely dumbfounded, and it showed on his face. Never, at any point in his life, had he imagined that a Neighbor would take the humans' side under any circumstances. "That's ridiculous!"

He heard Kitora sigh, and watched from behind as she shook her head. "It sounds hard to believe to someone like you, but there's Neighbors that are just as against what their kind is doing as we are. Even I didn't believe it at first, but they've helped us in the past and have been crucial in gaining information."

"That's..." Osamu had few words, and Kitora was almost right on the dot with her assumption, though he found it _far_ more than 'hard' to believe.

"Border's against it," Kitora added, "and in fact, in almost all other matters apart from freeing the human population they're virtually Tamakoma's opposite."

"Opposite?"

"They practically spit on the idea of working with Neighbors, _especially_ when it comes to the government. I told you Tamakoma wants to rebuild while still cooperating with supporting Neighbors, right? Well, Border's set out to completely annihilate them right down to the non-combatants, and they want to restore what everything was like before the war."

Osamu didn't know how to respond, though the line on which he believed he stood was a smudged mess.

Did he agree with Border?

Allying with Neighbors, _working_ with them? Going as far as keeping them in the government? Involving non-combatants in the matter of war seemed harsh, but what Neighbors _weren't_ raised to be a military pawn? To him, to anyone with common sense or a first-hand taste of what the Neighbor regime was like, that was absolutely insane. Kitora had initially come across as someone with a decent head on her shoulders, didn't she see that trying to cooperate with Neighbors was dangerous?

"Personally," she sighed, bringing Osamu's attention back to her, "I always thought it was a bit risky to work with Neighbors, and the extreme Tamakoma people are much too trusting. Something is yet to happen, though, and I suppose there _are_ a few who have proven themselves."

That was a small relief to hear, though Osamu's heart was racing as he considered the place he'd ended up in. Not the rebellion he thought it was, not even the one he thought he'd heard about. "So not everyone here fully trusts Neighbors, then? You said 'extreme' Tamakoma people, you mean people that are dedicated only to the original Tamakoma's goal?" He almost added 'Neighbor sympathizers', but held his tongue.

"First off, of course not everybody trusts them one-hundred percent, and that's perfectly justified." Keeping her back to Osamu, Kitora held up a finger as he started to say something. "Secondly, yes, that's what I was referring to by 'extreme Tamakoma people'. Some here are focused solely on Old Tamakoma's goal, and others on the Peace Faction's goal when it existed on it's own. Not everybody completely agrees with each other, but when Border's considered against us it's always been obvious that the alliance was sensible. You'll understand better eventually, as will Kuga."

Osamu had almost forgotten his friend was there, walking next to him with silent steps and an expression obscured by hair from Osamu's angle. He hadn't said anything since backtalking Kitora earlier, but he looked towards her as he heard his name, asking, "So Border wants to get rid of Neighbors?"

"Basically, most over there do - some sort of a hatred, really. A lot of them escaped from the Neighbor cities, or hold a grudge against them in some way or another, so it's not like they don't have understandable reasons."

Kuga hummed in in response, and Osamu stayed quiet.

That described him accurately enough.

He spoke up after another moment, wincing at the sound of his voice. "...And are you two groups are trying to get rid of each other, or something?"

Kitora raised an eyebrow and glanced at him from over her shoulder, but didn't question his wary tone. "Not directly, but the leaders of both claim to have the better goals - conflict is inevitable, and it usually gets down to trying to prevent one group from carrying out an operation for whatever reason. Offensive movements on a base is rare, but considering recent events I'd say what's considered 'rare' and what's not is in shambles."

 _She means Kuga_ , Osamu wouldn't call her on it, but it was easy to hear the name she wouldn't dare mention in the bearer's presence. He could always ask her something later.

Time passed slowly again. Osamu was out of questions he could stand to hear the answer to, as well as questions that KItora would _willingly_ answer, and Kuga was still quiet. They couldn't have been walking for more than fifteen minutes, but when no one's voice filled the tunnel each second became unbearably lengthy, and without any audible hints as to how Tamakoma was defending itself Osamu couldn't push Kitora's words from his mind.

 _Who_ are _they?_

It was impossible to shake his earlier conclusion that whoever resided in Border were coming to the base after Kuga, and that, if Jin was being truthful, they would torture people for information if they deemed it necessary. Were they cruel, is that why Tamakoma had enough numbers to survive, because there were sensible people refusing to resort to such methods?

Even after a short time, Osamu had grown fond of the people surrounding him, and couldn't believe any of them shared the goal Kitora had said belonged to Tamakoma - was there even a point of their organization, then? Even _Chika_ , Chika had to know Tamakoma's intentions and yet she had remained and fought for them, despite her upbringing being the same as Osamu's. He couldn't fathom why _anyone_ would be content with what Tamakoma wanted, regardless of their birthplace, and the Old Tamakoma people themselves couldn't have been anything short of a troupe of crazy people.

 _When did Kitora join, was she around when the rebels split up? If it was four years ago, she'd have to have been young..._

"What are you thinking about, Osamu?" Kuga's voice came to him in a whisper, glancing at Kitora for any indication that she could hear what he said. She gave none. "You're not asking about stuff anymore."

"...A few things," Osamu murmured back, joining him in looking to see if Kitora could hear them, who still didn't turn around. "This is the first time I've heard anything of this nonsense about being allies with Neighbors, and... and I can't even hate to admit it at this point, but don't you think Border's goal is more beneficial here?"

"About their views on Neighbors?"

"Of course! People have been locked in cages for fifty years, some of them disappearing to God-knows-where and dying outside because all they wanted was some freedom! How could anyone want to cooperate with Neighbors, the ones responsible for that?" He couldn't bring himself to say it out loud, but having heard the stories of that blurry time, fifty years ago, people like Old Tamakoma sounded like the reason humanity was so unprepared for a war against the Neighbors in the first place.

Kuga didn't say anything right away, though just as Osamu began to think he'd said something wrong his friend looked up at him with confused eyes. "What would you do if things were reversed, then?"

"What?"

"If humans were on the other side," he clarified, moving his gaze from Osamu and staring ahead of him, down the tunnel. "If humans were the ones invading the Neighbors, if they were the ones controlling the world for fifty years. Would you still fight on their side because you're one of them?"

Osamu took a pause, too, his mouth open with a lack of words as he ran through Kuga's question. "The fact that I'm human wouldn't change anything if humanity was doing something like that, it wouldn't make it any less terrible, wouldn't justify it," he declared. "So... I... I would..."

He stopped himself from talking - through his own words he understood what Kuga was trying to get across.

"You wouldn't go along with it, you'd fight against it because it's wrong, that's what you were going to say?" Kuga sounded like he expected Osamu's answer, and looked at him from the corner of his eye with a smile. "If what Kitora said is true, I doubt Neighbors can be as different from humans as you think they are, they all must have their own opinions and morals and there could be all kinds of them, good and bad alike. Saying you can't trust any of them is assuming that all of them are on board with what their military is doing, lumping them all into the same group, and you just told me that you would be fighting against it if it were humans doing the same thing. Because it's wrong."

Osamu coughed up random syllables as he tried to say something, but there was nothing he _could_ say. Kuga had a point, an obvious, somewhat clever point, and yet something in Osamu failed to convince himself completely. Speaking of Neighbors as if they were _human_ felt disturbingly unfamiliar. He had always been taught to respect the Neighbors out of fear, to never step out of line for that fear of death and to live as the faceless rat he was told by older citizens that they saw him as. He grew up around the same uniforms, Neighbor guards standing in line with each other as if they were machines with dark, watching eyes, and now, after fifteen years, only now did someone try to tell him those eyes were different.

"Don't feel bad, if you are," Kuga spoke warmly, "I don't think anyone in your position would've considered that, anyway. Probably why Border people are the way they are, but it's important to have an open mind."

Osamu didn't say anything, again, but he met Kuga's eyes in a way that said enough. And Kuga seemed fine with it, he continued to look in front of him past Kitora, who was still yet to turn around. Only later would Osamu find out that she'd heard nearly every word of their conversation, but that was beyond his priorities at the time.

He gained another reason to start digging.

 _"Do you know your destination, Chika?"_

Shiori's voice came through her earpiece, over the sounds of gunshots and clashing swords that slipped through the walls of an isolated upstairs hallway, not far from the roof entrance. Chika was yet to come face-to-face with an enemy soldier, much to her luck, and with the operator's help she was careful to avoid areas in which fighting had broken out.

"Yeah, I'm almost to the stairs," Chika confirmed in response, gripping her rifle with one hand as she tapped the radio. Taking the elevator would be too dangerous, and no signals had been picked up on the back staircase she was headed towards. "No encounters yet."

 _"You should be alright until you go down to the first floor, only a few of 'em made it upstairs. Even down there, if you stick to the edges of the base it's unlikely anybody's going to come after you until the plan's executed."_

"Right," she tried not to stammer, hoping her voice didn't betray her in terms of the fear Chika didn't want Shiori to pick up on. Three years after her enlistment could be no time for fear, and any kind of effect that kind of emotion would have on the task at hand was doing nothing more than dragging down the others. "Has anything changed?"

 _"The shield's already inactive, but people are running around as distractions. They can't do very much for very long, but in a minute or two the attention's going to shift to you. It doesn't seem like Border detected Kuga, so Kitora must've made it in time, but we're trying to prevent any of them from getting below ground. You're okay with this, Chika?"_

"O-Of course!" Chika forcefully brightened her tone, though her facial expression was painfully unmatched. "I'll be fine, and I trust them if the others think it's alright." She knew that Shiori knew whether or not things would be 'fine' was unpredictable on either end, but the operator said nothing of it. Neither of them were in control.

Shiori stayed on the line as Chika ran through the base, trying to block out her heartbeat as she tightened her grip on the gun resting under her arm. Gray walls closed her in, all that stood between her and the fighting she was but a breath away from. And the walls were shrinking.

 _"Chika, you're in position."_

Ten more steps until she stopped running, standing in the far side of the base.

Two more breaths until she threw a target on her back.

"...Trigger, on."

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Whoa, Triggers are a thing in this universe? But, wait, if there's people like Jin and Yuma, whatever are they used for...?**

 **Shortest chapter yet (excluding the prologue), and it's a bittersweet feeling - on one hand, editing a chapter less than 3,000 words is absolute bliss, but on the other hand it's the shortest chapter yet! Classes have been killing me lately lol, and if I tried to throw in the next scene in my outline this thing probably would've gotten too long and I wouldn't have finished in time! _ Ah, well, I hope all is well!**

 **Notice: Scheduled break before the next chapter because of my finals week! :'D**


	19. Disagreement of Sense and Fate

A breeze drifted over the cracked ground, overgrown with uncontrolled plants between the rubble of what were once buildings. The sky was fading from indigo, an orange glow calmly growing from beyond the horizon as dawn broke. Rows of soldiers stood facing the direction of the rebellion base, at their center the youngest of their ranks.

"Sir, we've gotten a signal."

"What?" Hyuse looked up from the holographic wall of text projected from a handheld device, met with a foot soldier holding something similar that displayed different visuals. The soldier's expression was stern, and once he'd gotten Hyuse's attention he pointed towards the screen again as the former took a few steps to look over his shoulder.

"Came up from underground," the soldier continued when Hyuse could see, "just after their Trion shield went down, but it seems to be going outside of the base. There's no other human signals around what's presumably that Trion kid, so he's either been captured by attacking soldiers that have cloaked themselves or is escaping on his own, which introduces another set of possibilities as to why - or how. Either way, he's getting out of there as we speak."

"You've confirmed it's him?"

"We have, it's identical to the initial one."

With slanted eyes, Hyuse watched the flickering green dot on an otherwise dark screen, surrounded closely by thinner lines and boxes of data overlapping the image. Tracking Kuga was an absolute _pain_ \- it had been deduced that after the host's energy had been used up in his combat state he fell unconscious, and every time he did the Trion signal disappeared for the next several hours, even after he woke up. It was theorized that he needed time to regenerate any lost Trion, but every time forces were sent to the location in which the signal had last appeared before disappearing, Kuga was already gone and untrackable. When in his normal state, he gave off a faint Trion signal that, on the surface, was no more distinguishable than that of a Neighbor's, and with Kuga's own evasive maneuvers and human rebellion interference he had managed to avoid capture by Aftokrator's hands.

"Sir?" The soldier addressed him again, more urgently. "What are your orders?"

Hyuse stepped back, arms folded as he kept his gaze fixed on the soldier's device. Kuga's signal was undoubtedly leaving the base, the display in front of him made that obvious enough, but any rash action could have devastating consequences that he would rather avoid at all costs. He surveyed the entirety of the hologram, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary in the context of the situation, apart from the _one_ signal, running further and further by the second. "There was the massive disappearance of their shield..." he muttered under his breath, "which could've been a distraction to allow Kuga to get aboveground without being stopped..."

He straightened his posture, not taking his eyes from the signal but applying a level of authority to his voice. "It's the mission, isn't it?" The soldier didn't say anything, still looking at him, and Hyuse turned to survey the statue-like troop surrounding him. "Tell the gray squad and black squad leaders to move their units in from the flanks and surround the target. I'm leading red to come up behind it, in the case of an attempted retreat to the human base, making it impossible for him to return."

Hyuse sent the officer on his way to alert the other squad leaders, and stepped on part of what was the remainder of an inner wall, now laid flat atop a pile of less distinguishable pieces of rubble. The attention among the crowd shifted to him before he had to say anything, and he raised his head to address the numerous faces below him. "Await specific orders from your squad leaders, we're initiating the pre-established Plan B. You're to bring Kuga back _alive_ at any costs, and with minimal injuries. Anything else is considered a failure."

A soldier in the front row raised an arm, the badges on their uniform showing that they were second-in-command of a unit. "And if the target has escorts, or additional enemy soldiers come after our forces?"

"I don't care if you kill them or leave them alive, as long as they're kept from jeopardizing the mission." Hyuse turned towards the speaker. "Get them out of the way quickly and efficiently."

The soldier nodded silently.

Hyuse knew the force had been briefed on the possible strategies beforehand; he left it to the squad leaders to reaffirm what need be reaffirmed. He looked towards the sky behind him, squinting his eyes at the bright splashes of reds and golds that preceded the rising sun. The crumbling landscape was all too familiar, and just as familiar was the possibility of a _threat_ behind it, like a weed crawling out from one of those cracks in the rubble.

And left alone, weeds could spread.

" _This_ is it?"

Osamu looked around him, the small room Kitora had led him and Kuga into not differing much from the hallways. It looked somewhat similar to Osamu and Kuga's room upstairs, but wood supports were visible in the walls and ceiling from lack of a facing. It hardly felt stable, for a shelter, no less, and he glanced towards Kitora for an explanation.

"What, did you think this place was finished?" she asked without expecting an answer, standing against the door frame and leaving the door itself open. "Didn't I already say otherwise?"

"Well, y-"

"It's not like we're expecting a bomb or anything," Kitora crossed her arms. "The goal here is to _hide_ that one," she gestured to Kuga, "and when it comes down to it, if something were to happen we'd be better off in here than in the middle of the hallway. While it's not exactly polished up, the depth of this tunnel system alone is enough to keep anyone down here safe under most circumstances."

Osamu still felt wary. "... _Most_ circumstances?"

"Relax."

"Under attack by squads of most likely peeved soldiers that now, apparently, have bombs," Kuga chirped, resting his hands behind his head as he leaned against the wall. "Great situation to relax in, y'know?"

Kitora stared him down, and Osamu thought he noticed her eyebrow twitch. "I didn't _ask_ you."

"Ask me what?"

Kitora didn't say anything that was understandable from Osamu's distance, only muttering under her breath as she turned her head to the side with a roll of her eyes. Osamu could almost feel the unrequited dislike radiating from her, while Kuga, facial expression completely neutral, seemed indifferent. The atmosphere itself oozed awkwardness for only Osamu himself.

"So, what, we just sit here?" He piped up, sliding down against the wall to sit closer to Kuga, who was still standing.

"As opposed to...?" Kitora gave him a questioning glance.

Osamu tilted his head back, staring at the exposed inner frame of the ceiling. "Anything. Doing something, moving, not sitting around _waiting_ to see if something happens."

" _I_ , for one, am already annoyed enough that I was taken out of combat to make sure nothing happens to a kid who can probably defend _himself_ , not to mention he's protected from showing up on radar, but I'm also not one to disobey orders, unnecessary as they may be. Not that I assume _you'd_ understand that, though. Oh," she added, "and you were the one that asked to tag along, in case you'd forgotten."

"I know, I-" Osamu sighed, brushing his hair back from his forehead as Kuga sat down beside him. He had intended to continue talking, but Kitora kept him from doing so as she spoke again after a sigh of her own.

"The higher-ups won't even permit you to fight." She turned away sharply, though looked at him from the corner of her eye. "So, for your own good, you might as well st-"

Kitora paused with a start, surprise momentarily freezing her features. Osamu and Kuga watched in silence as she raised a hand to the radio in her ear, the voice coming through it inaudible to the two onlookers.

She listened to whatever words were coming through the device for a few seconds without saying anything, though it was impossible to miss the shadow of concern that darkened her face, followed by a startled, " _What_?"

"What is it?" Osamu asked almost immediately, briefly making confused eye contact with Kuga.

Kitora didn't respond to him, listening intently to something coming from whoever was speaking through the device. While the initial shock had faded from her expression, her face was darkly serious, and she nodded stiffly to herself before speaking again less than a minute later. "And they can fare alright without me? There are people nearby to guard her?"

More silence.

"...You're sure?"

Osamu bit his lip, wanting to speak up again but knowing he would be ignored until Kitora's present conversation ended.

Kitora took her hand from the earpiece abruptly, her eyebrows creased as she thought to herself without acknowledging Osamu or Kuga, nor telling them what she'd heard. Again, Osamu felt compelled to ask what was going on, but the kind of silence in the room was the kind that felt crushing, suffocating, keeping him from saying a word.

"It seems we have some more company," she said suddenly, turning her body to face the two others. "...Neighbors."

" _Neighbors_?" Osamu and Kuga exclaimed in unison, looking up with widened eyes while Osamu pulled himself to his feet, Kuga following slower.

"Y-You're serious?" Osamu forced out, hardly keeping himself from jumbling his words. "Why?" He added quickly, at the same time Kuga asked, "How many?"

"Ayatsuji told me they've estimated it's around the size of a platoon, approaching from multiple angles, but the size is yet to be confirmed," she answered Kuga's question first. "And as for... _why_... of course, this is only a speculation based on the timing of things, so it could very well be coincidental, but- but they made their move right after your friend," Kitora nodded in Osamu's direction, "activated her Tri- _weapon_ , so-"

"What do you mean, her 'weapon'?" Osamu caught onto Kitora's quick covering up of her almost using another word, though was yet to absorb the remainder of her sentence. Nobody spoke for a few moments, Osamu himself trying to make sense of it, though Kuga reached out to put a hand on his shoulder before Osamu realized _who_ Kitora was referring to.

 _My... friend? Wh-_

His face fell.

"Oh my God, do you mean Chika? Ch- _Chika_? Th... They- Wait, _why_ \- _Why_ would-?" Osamu froze mid-sentence, realizing he had started to speak with his hands alongside his voice, pausing for another second. " _How_ does that...? You can't be-"

"Listen, I _said_ this was only speculation," Kitora cut him off, raising a hand so her palm was facing him. "It could very well be completely unrelated to her, but spare soldiers are moving to that area of the base nonetheless as a precaution. I told you out of consideration because you asked, but don't go thinking you have any role in the situation."

"Any role in the si-?" Osamu was taken aback. "She's my _friend_! Why would you expect I'd do nothing when you tell me she might be in danger?"

"And what _could_ you do, exactly?"

"Whatever I can! I'm not going to stand in the same place and tell myself what I can and can't do, with that kind of mindset i'll never figure those things out for myself in the first place!"

"You won't be figuring those things out from beyond the grave, either!"

"That is _not_ -"

"You're not only overreacting," Kitora interrupted him, "but you're underestimating _our_ soldiers, what, you think they're not capable of something you are?"

"I at least deserve to see the situation for myself!"

"What good would that do? We haven't even confirmed they're after her at all, you could be getting worried over nothing!"

Kuga took a step forward, intervening before Osamu himself could respond. "Do they target specific people often? And if they do, has Chika been one before?"

Kitora hesitated, taking a moment to smooth her already neat hair. "Of course they do, like every other military - we've done it, Border's doing it right now."

Osamu frowned and looked her in the eye, knowing Kuga was watching him. "...And Chika?"

"...She hasn't been."

"See?" Kuga patted Osamu's back nonchalantly, and while his voice sounded fairly normal his expression remained serious. "And even if that's not the case right now, Tamakoma's used to handling this kind of stuff - Kitora certainly acts like they are, anyway - so you can leave it in their hands."

"Can't I see what's going on?" Osamu spoke towards Kitora again after acknowledging Kuga's statement, though not being convinced by it. "Maybe I can't rush into battle like some war veteran, but that's not something that's going to stop me from trying to help someone I still care about!" For the first time, he eyed the handgun tucked loosely in Kitora's belt - it would be suitable enough as a defense against any normal enemy, but she'd _never_ give it to him willingly, let alone allow him to go upstairs unless her opinion changed by a miracle.

"I can update you on the situation from what my operator tells me," she answered coldly, only caring to glance at him. "And with that ability especially, there's not even a point for you to go up there yourself."

Osamu didn't want to weigh the consequences of running off against Kitora's 'orders', should he even begin to consider what things _might_ happen as a result he would risk damaging his judgement in the moment itself. And not trying to help or at least check on Chika, he already knew, was something he'd regret later regardless of how the situation turned out. Again, his eyes found Kitora's gun, and he found himself exhaling slowly - something about breathing out any invasive doubts, probably - and as he made his decision Osamu convinced himself that, after three years, he would do what he could for Chika's sake.

He shuffled to face Kitora head-on, telling himself he would apologize to her later.

Out of nowhere, Osamu bowed sharply, shutting his eyes for a brief moment to accompany the action. He could tell the unexpected movement took both Kitora and Kuga by surprise, but before either of them had a chance to say something he was first to steal the opportunity. "Please, let me go find her." ...That was all he had to say, right? That was enough to put Kitora off her guard? The bow was probably enough, really, but it was better to be sure.

"Wh-?" Kitora stared, open-mouthed, as she tried to make sense of the person in front of her. "A-Are you seriously this desperate? I don't care if you beg on your _knees_ , there's _no_ way-"

Osamu ducked lower, and he pushed off of one foot as he made a break for the door while Kitora was left mid-sentence. In an instant he snatched the girl's gun without slowing, momentarily biting his lip as he felt the weapon slip from its holster, but not reconsidering his choices as the world melted to a blur. He barely heard Kuga call his name, nor sensed Kitora's stunned silence as Osamu stumbled out the door without second thoughts.

He was nowhere near graceful, but managed to come up from his close-to-the-ground stance without falling. "Sorry, I'll give this back!" Osamu shouted as he bolted down the hallway, referring to the stolen firearm his right hand that he held incorrectly. His feet were heavy, and each step echoed in his ears as he forced himself to look ahead.

There was muffled shouting behind Osamu that he didn't dare let sink in, but to his luck the noise didn't seem to be growing any closer. Would Kitora follow him? If she did, Osamu knew he didn't stand even a scrap of a chance at outrunning her, but he relied on the fact that Kitora's orders were to protect _Kuga_ , and going after Osamu would be a violation of those orders if she left Kuga behind or ended up endangering him.

 _Just keep going. If she chases me I'm totally screwed, but I'll deal with that later._

Osamu vaguely remembered the route Kitora had taken them through, and even when he was uncertain as to where he should turn he made the decision on the spot, not wasting any time he would need on his side if he _were_ to suddenly be pursued. He assumed the air would feel warmer if he were close to an exit (and he made such an assumption with little knowledge on the subject, but he had virtually nothing to work with), and Osamu half-relied on his instincts as his legs moved almost entirely on their own.

 _Get upstairs, it doesn't matter if I go through the bunker or not, I just have to get upstairs. I'm sure I can find Chika easily once I'm up there._

He tried to get a better grip on the gun, fumbling with it in both hands and almost losing balance. Since the event in Mikado City in which he had no idea how to do so much as shoot, Jin had taught Osamu some of the basics of using a handgun - enough so he knew how to hold it correctly and actually _fire_ , at least - but his skill hadn't improved as much as he thought it would. Such a skill level was still able to keep him alive, presumably, if his attacker was disarmed, within three meters of him, and standing still.

Osamu hadn't noticed a change in the air temperature, but as painfully low stamina began to catch up to him, he heard the faintest sounds of combat upon turning a corner from uncertain memory and impulse. After checking for footsteps from anywhere behind him, Osamu paused for a mere second before continuing towards the noise at a slower pace, not wanting to use up all his energy now that he didn't think Kitora was following him; whatever reason she had worked in his favor.

 _Avoid combat if I can, I might have to find someone to ask about Chika's location but I know the first floor well enough to be able to find my way around._ Osamu spoke to himself in what was currently his best attempt at self-reassurance, not realizing he gripped the handgun tighter as the fighting above became louder.

 _Now's not the time for reconsidering anything._

Several strides and another semi-nervous turn later, Osamu exhaled in relief as he caught sight of a wall up ahead with a small door-sized opening off to the side, most likely stairs to the ground floor. After glancing over his shoulder, he came to a shaky walk as he let his hands fall to his sides. His heart pounded for reasons other than having ran most of the way, and Osamu stared down at the gun a final time before advancing.

Not stairs but a ladder awaited him, and Osamu groaned as he tucked Kitora's gun safely in one of the pockets in his jacket, before latching himself onto the metal pegs and starting to climb upwards. Fortunately, it didn't sound like there was fighting directly above him, but it was obviously close, and with sweat dotting his face Osamu prepared himself to run again if he happened to encounter any Border soldiers or, even worse, a Neighbor.

The ladder was about double the height of the one he had climbed (and fallen from) earlier due to the lack of an accompanying staircase, and Osamu ascended slowly, keeping his strength in mind. It was darker than the hallways and as cramped as the first ladder, but the temperature steadily growing more comfortable told Osamu he would reach ground level quickly.

 _Don't let worries control your actions._

Osamu tilted his head back, and no more than a couple meters above him he spotted a hatch, a metal handle on its worn face. It didn't appear to have any locks, and looked relatively easy to push up. It had to be the exit.

 _Don't let regrets control your actions._

 _You don't have any right now._

 _You can't consider everything in the moment._

 _Only act._

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Alright first off, I'm so sorry for being late on the update! My mental health hasn't been too great lately, and I've had the worst writer's block, but I'm doing my best to get back in the swing of things! Definitely going to try to keep late updates to a minimum, and again, my apologies!**

 **Anyway, some developments in this chapter...! Hyuse's soldiers picked up a signal they believe to be Kuga, and they're taking action, but I'd like to confirm this is all going on at the same time and Kuga hasn't gone aboveground. Sense looming trouble yet?**


	20. To Not Reconsider Not Reconsidering

Osamu was frozen on the ladder, his extended hand in mid-air as it hovered over the unlocked hatch. He had already tested its functionality a couple of times, pushing up the person-sized square only enough so it wouldn't attract the attention of anyone that happened to be in eyeshot. It seemed easy enough to open, and Osamu stared at the dark plate as his fingers brushed the surface once again.

He listened intently for any footsteps above him – whether they belonged to someone in Tamakoma or not, getting caught popping up from a tile on the floor was a questionable activity all the same, and getting caught with an A-Rank agent's stolen gun in his possession was yet another matter. Osamu could hear the battle all too clearly, but it didn't sound as if there was any activity directly above his head.

Osamu threw open the hatch, and scrambled up the last few steps on the ladder as his fingers grabbed at the smoothness of the floor, then placed the gun on one side of the hole to have both his hands available as he tried to climb up. Ungraceful as he was, his head popped out of the opening before his entire upper half followed, dragging his legs up after it.

After picking up Kitora's gun, his first instinct was to look around and check for any enemy soldiers or a Tamakoma onlooker, and Osamu felt a weight lift from his shoulders as he realized he had been unseen.

The the short-lived moment of relief died in an instant, and he flinched as he heard a bullet ricochet off of a wall that had to be as close as the next hallway over, frantically hurrying to the nearest corner to conceal himself behind. Glancing at the room numbers beside various doors parallel to his position, he determined that he was close to the center of the base, where the main training hall was.

 _I know where I am, all I need to do is ask someone where Chika is right now – I should probably use 'Amatori' instead, though. Avoid combat. This place is huge, there's no way there's fighting everywhere. I can't get injured now._

Osamu took a deep breath, and he pushed himself off the wall and made a break down the empty hallway, in the opposite direction of whatever conflict his ears were picking up. His feet felt weighted as they had when he ran through the underground tunnels, but with a feel of his location Osamu's steps moved quicker.

On a whim, Osamu decided to head toward the far side of the base, giving him plenty of time to listen for some sort of a clue as to where Chika was. He paused for a moment at every corner, trying to prevent himself from running headfirst into a battle he knew well he couldn't walk out of. His breathing was strained already, but Osamu refused to take breaks in order to catch his breath, focused on his surroundings. Chaotic background noise drummed in his ears, background noise that was growing... louder?

Osamu was early to notice the sounds of approaching soldiers, their fight taking them towards Osamu's location. Panicked, he looked down the long corridor before him and immediately realized he was unlikely to reach a corner without being spotted, and he scanned the walls in desperation for _something_ he could hide in. His only available options seemed to be an elevator several feet away and a stairwell at the end of the hallway, and being wary of the uncertainty that came with not knowing how fast the elevator itself would arrive, Osamu decided his chances of remaining unseen were better if he made a break for the stairs.

He turned and sacrificed whatever remaining energy he had on hand, and ran at the fastest speed he could manage. Osamu could only do so much as hope that his footsteps, ringing in his own ears, would be drowned out by the battle on his tail.

His head pounded.

 _A little farther._

 _Only a little farther._

 _I can't be caught now._

A bullet hit the wall.

Osamu's heart lodged itself in his throat. He nearly came to a stumbling halt before his situation got the best of him, and with painfully choppy breaths he kept his eyes focused on the goal ahead of him.

The soldiers were in the hallway. No doubt they could see him, the shouting told him that much.

Osamu was steps away from the staircase to the second floor, when one voice managed to successfully reach his ears.

"He's Tamakoma!"

No less than a moment later Osamu felt a searing pain on his right shoulder, and gasped at the fire that spread down his arm. Had one of them seen the emblem on his sleeve? Tripping on the first stair and barely managing to keep himself from falling, Osamu's hand flew to the pain's source and he froze at the wetness he found there.

A bullet had barely hit him flying by, and cut deep enough to draw a flow of blood but having missed him by enough to not have embed itself in his muscle. Shock held him in place only briefly, before he was forced back into reality by a second bullet that flew by terrifyingly close to his head.

He glanced behind him in an instant, not able to take in much of his attackers' appearances but making the quick assumption that they were human – therefore, Border.

 _They're wearing... suits?_

As strange as their attire seemed, if Osamu had even seen correctly, he couldn't afford to risk being hit again. He hastily pulled himself behind the wall in front of the stairwell, and he switched the gun from his left to right hand before latching his now free hand to to his shoulder in an attempt to prevent blood loss. Flinching as he heard more bullets hit the wall that currently shielded him, Osamu staggered up the first few stairs with one hand grasping Kitora's gun and the other his wounded shoulder.

And then he caught the soldier's' words.

"Leave him, he has a normal signal to begin with," ordered a deep voice, the same one who had announced Osamu's belonging to Tamakoma. "Return to the marked spot," they continued. "Tamakoma is going to be occupied enough in dealing with the Neighbors' advancing on the West side of the base, it seems one of their own is being targeted."

Osamu froze where he stood.

"Roger that, sir," replied a second, more upbeat voice. Osamu could distinguish the faint sound of a gun being placed in its holster, giving him the impression that this person was the one who had shot at him or, if there had been multiple, one of them.

"Are you sure?" A third voice asked, sounding cautious. "He may have seen our faces."

"I doubt he got a good look, he turned around quickly enough," the first voice answered.

The second person chimed in, and Osamu's ears picked up the shuffling of feet. "He was alone, too. Doubt he'll get much further without his squad, especially since Afto's just showed up."

What followed was murmuring that Osamu couldn't hear properly, but it faded from earshot as the three people ignored him and went on their way. He breathed a lengthy sigh of relief, though the throbbing in his shoulder left him wincing as he accidentally shifted it.

Osamu slowly rotated the joint with a frown; he would have to keep running, and while he could probably bear the pain, moving his shoulder even slightly seemed to make an additional amount of blood flow from the wound. It wasn't a terrifyingly concerning amount, and in the moment he was thankful for his left-handedness that still enabled him to use the handgun if he really needed to, but Osamu was conscious of any movement involving his right shoulder.

He _did_ have a better idea of where he was going, though.

Whichever of the three soldiers had spoken first said that Neighbors were going towards the West side of the base, giving Osamu reason enough to assume that was where Chika was, even if it was helplessly broad. He knew his surroundings well enough, and he'd heard Tamakoma soldiers describing various locations in the base as being on the 'West side' before - he would head towards the far end of the base, and if _Neighbors_ were indeed attacking Tamakoma, it would be easy to find them when he got close enough.

Deciding it was too risky to go back down the hallway from which he'd came, Osamu forced himself up the stairs after listening for footsteps above him and hearing none. He would have to avoid any further encounters with any soldiers, and as he pushed open the door on the second floor Osamu moved with caution while sneaking towards the back hallways.

He could still hear the fighting, if not even more so after being shot at, but it would be reasonable for the majority of the battle to be taking place on the ground level. While Osamu's wariness of his surroundings had been upped, he felt more secure on the second floor and thus moved quicker, even with the throbbing in his shoulder.

The monotone, repetitive setup of Tamakoma's base passed him by almost quicker than he could process it, though a considerable amount of his focus was directed towards preventing leaving an obvious trail of blood from his shoulder. Osamu was overly conscious of the sound of his own footsteps, keeping them as quiet as he could manage while running through the numerous corridors. Only once did he hear a battle that sounded close enough to be on his floor, and while stumbling a bit he quickly changed his route to avoid being seen.

 _Jin_ did _say the guards only thought a few Border units showed up, that's probably why it's pretty empty up here_ , Osamu remembered, looking around before taking his next turn. _And I'm lucky that there doesn't seem to be any Neighbors where I am... None that I can hear, at least._

When it sounded like there was no fight within any distance that would endanger Osamu's motive, he glanced at room numbers on the walls again to confirm his location. Progressing at a fast walk rather than a run, he took a guess at where to turn next based on the layout of other areas in the base, and sure enough he rounded a corner to see the door to an empty stairwell.

Glancing from side-to-side and moving closer, Osamu paused in front of the door as he took his bloodied hand from his shoulder and hovered it near the handle. What would be waiting for him at the bottom of those stairs? Would he have to _fight_? How many Neighbors were ahead of him?

 _More importantly, how much will I regret hesitating?_

He turned the handle.

Osamu was careful of his steps, and had abandoned trying to apply pressure to his shoulder, the bleeding less than before. He held Kitora's gun to his chest, tensing as he clicked off the safety. Any sounds echoed off the close walls and, to Osamu, seemed several times louder than they would have in the hallway - the stairwell seemed like an isolated pocket miles away from any fighting. And it was eerie.

Natural light snuck into the dim space as Osamu neared the bottom, and only then did his surroundings return to him in a storm of gunshots, metals, and the shouting of orders above them. Holding his breath, he picked up his pace and jumped down the last few stairs, hearing his shoes squeak against the floor. Osamu spared no time in pressing his back against the wall, now gripping his weapon with _both_ hands despite the blood, and scanned the hallway quickly while listening for the closeness of any other soldiers. There was a battle nearby, as close as a wall away if Osamu's estimate was correct, and-

 _Crash!_

Out of nowhere, the entire hallway shook. Osamu was thrown off balance in a start as the creaking of metal screamed in his ears, and managed to stay on his feet despite the dizziness that had enveloped everything around him. Still keeping hold of the gun, he put one hand against the wall to steady himself. Osamu nearly flinched away at the rumbling in the cold surface, an effect of _whatever_ had just occurred, but he forced his head upwards as he looked for something that would guide him to the source.

From beyond the corner at the end of the hallway, he saw smoke. Possibly dust, or both, even, but either way, the murky pale cloud seemed to crawl along the floor as it flooded the near surrounding area. Osamu stood up straight, breathing heavy as he stared at it with wide eyes.

 _That's it._

His vision shifted direction to see a group of people that seemed to be around the size of two squads, maybe three, approaching the gray haze from the hallway directly in front of it. Osamu had to squint, but he barely made out the Tamakoma emblem on one of their jackets, and, if they had even seen him, none paid him mind as they disappeared behind the wall.

Osamu could hear them join the battle that had broken out, and over the mess of noises he tried in vain to listen for Chika's voice or, at the least, anyone saying her name. He didn't need a vocal clue or the convincing feeling in hit gut to tell him, however, that he'd found her.

It was when a bullet escaped the hall and flew through Osamu's line of sight did he make a move. He returned to holding the gun with both hands, and moved forward in an uneven run that quickly gained in speed.

He went around the corner.

Osamu's vision became clouded, and he ducked his head in attempt to keep the tiny pieces of debris from getting in his eyes, coughing despite trying to turn away. Everything was so loud, so _loud_ , and with every firing of a gun his first assumption was that _he_ had been the one shot before he realized he felt no wound.

Suddenly, a loud _clang_ ripped through the smoke, immediately taking all of Osamu's attention. To his dismay, he heard the noise again. And again. And _again_.

More times than he could count, the almost sickening sound of something being thrown against the metal walls of the base pained his ears, followed by what was undoubtedly various weapons falling to the floor. Osamu's curiosity was what took him through the next few steps forward, and as the haze in front of him began to thin on its own he waved it away with a hand and tried to see what was in front of him.

Bodies. And not only on the floor; Osamu could only stare in horror at the numerous Tamakoma soldiers pinned to the walls by one or more of their limbs. However, after a single moment he realized that most of them were _moving_ , some desperately, and with a closer look he noticed that sharp black spikes were what stuck the soldiers to whatever surface they had been flung to.

Osamu couldn't look with such intensity for long, for movement on the corner of his vision caught his eye the second he noticed it. His finger found the gun's trigger, and he shakily pointed it towards the human-shaped silhouette that stood at the edge of the sight in front of him.

His eyes drifting as if they _wanted_ him to see her, it took him a second longer to recognize the soldier that was trapped to the ground by her arm, directly before the unidentified threat responsible.

And in the same second he knew said threat was no human.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **More than one unnamed mysterious character™ in this chapter, though I assume you can identify most of them (lol). Well, at least the three in suits...**

 **Fun fact: in the original version of the story, Chika lived in Mikado City with Osamu's family, and the two of them ended up joining Tamakoma at the same time under the same circumstances. I probably should've put that in the notes when Chika debuted, but even though I missed that opportunity I felt I should include it at some point!**


End file.
